title: Asymmetric histone 3 methylation pattern between paternal and maternal pronuclei in equine zygotes.
abstract: Hoechst staining has traditionally been used to evaluate fertilization and parental origin of pronuclei. However, prevalence of parthenogenetic activation cannot be distinguished accurately by this protocol, and variation of relative pronuclear size and position makes it impossible to determine parental origin. We demonstrate that in equine zygotes, the epigenetic modification histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) shows an asymmetric pattern between maternal and paternal pronuclei. H3K9me3 immunostaining appears to be a robust technique to identify the parent of origin of equine pronuclei; it can be used in combination with 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine immunostaining and applied to evaluate fertilization.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium. Electronic address: sonia.herasgarcia@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heras
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Katrien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leemans
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Soom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D006657:Histones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006736:Horses; D008239:Lysine / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008745:Methylation; D009035:Mothers; D015053:Zygote / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D008239:Lysine
keywords: Epigenetics; Equine zygotes; H3K9me3; Immunofluorescence; Pronuclear sexing