Project description:In vitro fertilization (IVF) is currently one of the most used assisted reproductive technologies to achieve a successful pregnancy. However, the acquisition of oxidative stress in embryo in vitro culture impairs its competence. Here, we demonstrated that the S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe)-dependent thiol methyltransferase, methyltransferase-like protein 7A (METTL7A) improves the developmental potential of bovine embryos. We found exogenous METTL7A modulates expression of genes involved in embryonic cell mitochondrial pathways and promotes trophectoderm development. Surprisingly, we discovered that METTL7A alleviates mitochondrial stress and DNA damage and promotes cell cycle progression during embryo cleavage. In summary, we have identified a novel mitochondria stress eliminate mechanism regulated by METTL7A that occurs during the acquisition of oxidative stress in embryo in vitro culture. This discovery lays the groundwork for the development of METTL7A as a promising therapeutic target for IVF embryo competence.
Project description:Oocyte quality, which is directly related to reprogramming competence, is a major important limiting factor in animal cloning efficiency. Compared with oocytes matured in vivo, in vitro matured (IVM) oocytes exhibit lower oocyte quality and reprogramming competence primarily because of their higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we investigate whether supplementing the oocyte maturation medium with melatonin, a free radical scavenger, could improve oocyte quality and reprogramming competence. We found that 10−9 M melatonin effectively alleviated oxidative stress, markedly decreased early apoptosis levels, recovered the integrity of mitochondria, ameliorated the spindle assembly and chromosome alignment in oocytes, and significantly promoted subsequent cloned embryo development in vitro. We also analyzed the effects of melatonin on epigenetic modifications in bovine oocytes. Melatonin increased the global H3K9 acetylation levels, reduced the H3K9 methylation levels, and minimally affected DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation. Genome-wide expression analysis of genes affected by melatonin during oocyte maturation was conducted by high-throughput scRNA sequencing. We found that several important genes altered by melatonin were involved in oocyte stress defense. These genes included GSTP1, mitochondrial DNA polymerase POLG, mitochondrial ATP synthase ATP5E, centriole-enriched gene CEP295, spindle assembly-related gene TCTP, cytoprotection, and anti-apoptosis-related gene HSP27. Our results indicated critical roles of melatonin during bovine oocyte maturation and development.
Project description:The majority of embryos that are created through IVF do not implant. One possibility for this inefficiency is an incomplete understanding of the molecular factors affecting embryo competence. Currently, the process of selecting an embryo for uterine transfer utilizes an ad-hoc combination of morphological criteria, the kinetics of development, and genetic testing for aneuploidy. However, no single criterion can ensure selection of a viable embryo. In contrast, RNA-sequencing of embryos could yield highly dimensional data, which may provide additional insight and illuminate the discrepancies among current selection criteria. Indeed, recent advances enabling the production of RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) libraries from single cells have facilitated the application of this technique to the study of some transcriptional events in early human development. However, these studies have not assessed the quality of their constituent embryos relative to commonly used embryological criteria. Here, we perform proof-of-principle advancement to clinical selection procedures by generating high quality RNA-seq libraries from a trophectoderm biopsy as well as the remaining whole embryo. We combine state-of-the-art embryological methods with low-input RNA-seq to develop the first transcriptome-wide approach for use in future predictive embryology studies. Specifically, we demonstrate the capacity of RNA-seq as a promising tool in preimplantation screening by showing that biopsies of an embryo can capture valuable information content available in the whole embryo from which they are derived. Furthermore, we show that this technique can be used to generate a RNA-based digital karyotype, and to develop a foundational dataset for identifying candidate competence-associated genes. Together, these data establish the foundation for a future RNA-based diagnostic in IVF.
Project description:The aberrant gene expression of early bovine embryos are a major cause for developemtal arrest. Therefore our aim was to detect transcriptomic fingerprints which correlate with the subsequent developmental competence of a two cell stage embryo.
Project description:WNT5A, one of the most abundant cell-signaling ligands expressed in the endometrium, appears to be an important regulator of early development because it can act on the preimplantation bovine embryo through a ROCK-dependent pathway to improve competence to develop to the blastocyst stage and increase number of cells in the inner cell mass.
Project description:The aberrant gene expression of early bovine embryos are a major cause for developemtal arrest. Therefore our aim was to detect transcriptomic fingerprints which correlate with the subsequent developmental competence of a two cell stage embryo. 2-cell stage embryos were bisected; one blastomere was cultured individually, its sister-blastomere was snap-frozen. According to the development of individual cultured blastomeres, the corresponding frozen samples were pooled into three groups for global gene expression analyses. We defined three groups: I. embryos which did not cleave after separation (2CB), II. embryos which stopped cleaving at four cell stage (8CB) and III. embryos reaching blastocyst stage (BL).
Project description:Oxidative stress has been suggested to negatively affect oocyte and embryo quality and developmental competence, resulting in failure to reach full term. In this study, we investigated the effect of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a cell-permeating antioxidant, on developmental competence and the quality of oocytes and embryos upon supplementation (0.1-10 mM) in maturation and culture medium in vitro using slaughterhouse-derived oocytes and embryos. The results show that treating oocytes with 1.0 mM NAC for 8 h during in vitro maturation attenuated the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) (p < 0.05) and upregulated intracellular glutathione levels (p < 0.01) in oocytes. Interestingly, we found that NAC affects early embryonic development, not only in a dose-dependent, but also in a stage-specific, manner. Significantly (p < 0.05) decreased cleavage rates (90.25% vs. 81.46%) were observed during the early stage (days 0-2), while significantly (p < 0.05) increased developmental rates (38.20% vs. 44.46%) were observed during the later stage (from day 3) of embryonic development. In particular, NAC supplementation decreased the proportion of apoptotic blastomeres significantly (p < 0.05), resulting in enhanced hatching capability and developmental rates during the in vitro culture of embryos. Taken together, our results suggest that NAC supplementation has beneficial effects on bovine oocytes and embryos through the prevention of apoptosis and the elimination of oxygen free radicals during maturation and culture in vitro.