Project description:ZFP541 is one of the candidates for a transcriptional regulator during mouse meiotic prophase. In order to address the role of ZFP541, transcriptomes of meiotic prophase-enriched population were compared between Zfp541 +/- and Zfp541 KO testes by RNA-seq. The meiotic prophase-enriched population was isolated from Zfp541 +/- and Zfp541 KO testes at postnatal day 18 (P18), on the Rec8-3FH-GFP KI background by fluorescent sorting of GFP positive cells.
Project description:ZFP541 is assumed to possess putative DNA-binding domains and associated with histone deacetylases, implying it plays a role in regulation of transcription via modulation of chromatin status. Therefore, we used ChIP-seq to search for targets of ZFP541 in meiotic prophase of mouse spermatocytes.
Project description:5'-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), an important 5'-cytosine modification, is altered highly in order in male meiotic prophase. However, the regulatory mechanism of this dynamic change and the function of 5hmC in meiosis remain largely unknown. Using a knockout mouse model, we showed that UHRF1 regulated male meiosis. UHRF1 deficiency led to failure of meiosis and male infertility. Mechanistically, the deficiency of UHRF1 altered significantly the meiotic gene profile of spermatocytes. Uhrf1 knockout induced an increase of the global 5hmC level. The enrichment of hyper-5hmC at transcriptional start sites (TSSs) was highly associated with gene downregulation. In addition, the elevated level of the TET1 enzyme might have contributed to the higher 5hmC level in the Uhrf1 knockout spermatocytes. Finally, we reported Uhrf1, a key gene in male meiosis, repressed hyper-5hmC by downregulating TET1. Furthermore, UHRF1 facilitated RNA polymerase II (RNA-pol2) loading to promote gene transcription. Thus our study demonstrated a potential regulatory mechanism of 5hmC dynamic change and its involvement in epigenetic regulation in male meiosis.
Project description:We comprehensively compared the chromatin structures and transcriptomes in successive substages of female and male mouse meiotic prophase by using sisHi-C and RNA-Seq methods. Interestingly, the transcriptional change happened earlier than chromatin structures reprograming that chromatin structures largely maintained the pre-meiotic condition in leptotene. Also, compartments and TADs gradually disappeared and then slowly recovered in both oocytes and spermatocytes. We characterized the events of homologous chromosomes pairing and found homologues adopted two sex-conserved pairing strategies prior to and after leptotene-to-zygotene transition, which firstly contacted more frequently in LINE enriched compartment B and then switched to SINE enriched compartment A. The sexual difference of transcriptome was most obvious in late meiotic prophase, which reflected in gamete morphology and function differences. We also complemented marker genes for each substage of oocytes and spermatocytes meiotic prophase, and predicted the sex-specific meiotic functional genes, whose mutation or deletion may cause sex different effects on fertility. In summary, this study revealed the sexual similarities and dimorphic of higher-order chromatin architecture, homologous pairing and transcriptome during meiotic prophase of both oogenesis and spermatogenesis.
