title: Development and imprinted gene expression in uniparental preimplantation mouse embryos in vitro.
abstract: Increasing numbers of reports show that imprinted genes play a crucial role in fetal development, and uniparental embryos, which possess two paternally or two maternally derived pronuclei, are excellent tools for investigating the biological significance of imprinted genes. In the present study, to examine the in vitro developmental ability and expression pattern of eight imprinted genes in uniparental embryos, we produced androgenones, gynogenones, and parthenogenones using enucleation. Our data confirmed the previously observed restriction in haploid androgenetic development potential and first indicated that diploid androgenetic embryos were arrested in the 3/4-cell stage. Some imprinted genes were expressed in androgenetic, gynogenetic, and parthenogenetic blastocysts, suggesting that they were unable to maintain their imprinted expression status in uniparental embryos and that both paternal and maternal alleles are required for the specific expression of some imprinted genes.
authors.affiliation: Agricultural Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding Key Lab of Guangdong Province, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
authors.forename: Minhua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Li-Chi
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: TuanMu
authors.forename: Hengxi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Fenglei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shouquan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D004171:Diploidy; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D006238:Haploidy; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D051379:Mice; D012730:Sex Chromosomes; D015053:Zygote