Project description:Chimaerism and mixoploidy define the presence of cell lineages with different parental genomes or different ploidy states in a single individual. Our knowledge on their mechanistic origin results from indirect observations, often when the cell lineages have been subject to rigorous selective pressure during development. Here, we applied haplarithmisis to infer the haplotypes and the copy number of parental genomes in 116 single blastomeres comprising entire preimplantation stage bovine embryos (n=23) following in vitro fertilization. Not only abnormal fertilizations leading to triploid zygotes, but also normally fertilized zygotes can spontaneously segregate entire parental genomes into different cell lineages during cleavage of the zygote. We coin the term “heterogoneic division” to indicate the events leading to non-canonical zygotic cytokinesis segregating the parental genomes into distinct lineages. Persistence of those cell lines during development is the likely cause of chimaerism and mixoploidy in mammals.
Project description:The liver of dairy cows naturally displays a series of metabolic adaptation during the periparturient period in response to the increasing nutrient requirement of lactation. The hepatic adaptation is partly regulated by insulin resistance and it is affected by the prepartal energy intake level of cows. We aimed to investigate the metabolic changes in the liver of dairy cows during the periparturient at gene expression level and to study the effect of prepartal energy level on the metabolic adaptation at gene expression level.B13:N13
Project description:The first mitotic division causes both parental genomes present in the zygote to segregate into two biparental diploid daughter cells. This fundamental tenet was challenged by the observation that blastomeres with different genome ploidy and distinct parental genotypes can coexist within individual embryos. We hypothesized that whole parental genomes can segregate into distinct blastomere lines during the multipolar division of the zygote, a phenomenon referred to as “heterogoneic” cell division. Here, we provide evidence of genome-wide segregation errors in two human blastocysts and further pinpoint its origin in a bovine model by mapping the genomic landscape of 82 blastomeres from 25 embryos that underwent multipolar division at the zygote stage using genome-wide SNP arrays and sequencing. In most embryos, the coexistence of androgenetic and diploid or polyploid blastomeres with or without anuclear blastomeres, androgenetic and anuclear blastomeres, and androgenetic and gynogenetic blastomeres within the same embryo provided proof that multipolar zygotic division coincides with heterogoneic segregation of the parental genome. By mapping the segregational origin of the genomic content, we deduced distinct segregation mechanisms underlying heterogoneic cell division including segregation by a tripolar spindle, the pronuclear extrusion of a paternal genome and, the operation of an ectopic paternal or private parental spindles. Polyspermic embryos expel excessive paternal genomes resulting in an androgenetic or polyploid blastomere. Confirming the results in human blastocysts we found genome-wide segregation errors to persist in bovine blastocysts.
