title: Determination of the parental pronuclear origin in bovine zygotes: H3K9me3 versus H3K27me2-3.
abstract: To study the dynamics of 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in zygotes, the parental origin of the pronuclei needs to be determined. To this end the use of the asymmetric distribution of histone modifications in pronuclei is becoming more popular. Here, we demonstrated that histone 3 lysine 27 di-tri-methylation shows a stable pattern being present in the maternal but not in the paternal pronucleus of bovine zygotes, even in late stages of pronuclear development. In contrast, the pattern of histone 3 lysine 9 tri-methylation is very variable, and therefore cannot be used to reliably determine the parental origin of bovine pronuclei.
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: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vandenberghe
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; D002417:Cattle; D006657:Histones / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008745:Methylation; D000069321:Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy; D015053:Zygote / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D006657:Histones
keywords: Bovine zygotes; Epigenetics; H3K27me2-3; H3K9me3; Immunofluorescence; Pronuclear sexing