Altered cell cycle gene expression and apoptosis in post-implantation dog parthenotes.
Mature oocytes can be parthenogenetically activated by a variety of methods and the resulting embryos are valuable for studies of the respective roles of paternal and maternal genomes in early mammalian development. In the present study, we report the first successful development of parthenogenetic canine embryos to the post-implantation stage. Nine out of ten embryo transfer recipients became pregnant and successful in utero development of canine parthenotes was confirmed. For further evaluation of these parthenotes, their fetal development was compared with artificially inseminated controls and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were compared using ACP RT-PCR, histological analysis and immunohistochemistry. We found formation of the limb-bud and no obvious differences in histological appearance of the canine parthenote recovered before degeneration occurred; however canine parthenotes were developmentally delayed with different cell cycle regulating-, mitochondria-related and apoptosis-related gene expression patterns compared with controls. In conclusion, our protocols were suitable for activating canine oocytes artificially and supported early fetal development. We demonstrated that the developmental abnormalities in canine parthenotes may result from defective regulation of apoptosis and aberrant gene expression patterns, and provided evidence that canine parthenotes can be a useful tool for screening and for comparative studies of imprinted genes.
Department of Theriogenology & Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Jung Eun
JE
Park
Min Jung
MJ
Kim
Seung Kwon
SK
Ha
So Gun
SG
Hong
Hyun Ju
HJ
Oh
Geon A
GA
Kim
Eun Jung
EJ
Park
Jung Taek
JT
Kang
Islam M
IM
Saadeldin
Goo
G
Jang
Byeong Chun
BC
Lee
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D002453:Cell Cycle; D004285:Dogs; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005121:Extremities / Q000196:embryology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology; D010312:Parthenogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D011247:Pregnancy