Pivotal role for long noncoding RNAs in zygotic genome activation in mice

Vertebrate life begins with fertilization,and then the zygote genome is activated after transient silencing,a process termed zygotic genome activation(ZGA).Despite its fundamental role in totipotency and the initiation of life,the precise mechanism underlying ZGA initiation remains unclear.The existence of minor ZGA implies the possible critical role of noncoding RNAs in the initiation of ZGA.Here,we delineate the expression profile of long noncoding RNAs(lncRNAs)in early mouse embryonic development and elucidate their critical role in minor ZGA.Compared with protein-coding genes(PCGs),lncRNAs exhibit a stronger correlation with minor ZGA.Distinct H3K9me3 profiles can be observed between lncRNA genes and PCGs,and the enrichment of H3K9me3 before ZGA might explain the suspended expression of major ZGA-related PCGs despite possessing PolII pre-configuration.Furthermore,we identified the presence of PolII-enriched MuERV-L around the transcriptional start site of minor ZGA-related lncRNAs,and these repeats are responsible for the activation of minor ZGA-related lncRNAs and subsequent embryo development.Our study suggests that MuERV-L mediates minor ZGA lncRNA activation as a critical driver between epigenetic reprogramming triggered by fertilization and the embryo developmental program,thus providing clues for understanding the regulatory mechanism of totipotency and establishing bona fide totipotent stem cells.

Bilineage embryo-like structure from EPS cells can produce live mice with tetraploid trophectoderm

Self-organized blastoids from extended pluripotent stem(EPs)cells possess enormous potential for investigating postimplantation embryo development and related diseases.However,the limited ability of postimplantation development of Eps-blastoids hinders its further application.In this study,single-cell transcriptomic analysis indicated that the“trophectoderm(TE)-like structure”of EPSblastoids was primarily composed of primitive endoderm(PrE)-related cells instead of TE-related cells.We further identified PrE-like cells in EPS cell culture that contribute to the blastoid formation with TE-like structure.Inhibition of PrE cell differentiation by inhibiting MEK signaling or knockout of Gata6 in EPS cells markedly suppressed EPS-blastoid formation.Furthermore,we demonstrated that blastocyst-like structures reconstituted by combining the EPs-derived bilineage embryo-like structure(BLEs)with either tetraploid embryos or tetraploid TE cells could implant normally and develop into live fetuses.In summary,our study reveals that TE improvement is critical for constructing a functional embryo using stem cells in vitro.

Nuclear m^(6)A reader YTHDC1 regulates the scaffold function of LINE1 RNA in mouse ESCs and early embryos

N^(6)-methyladenosine(m^(6)A)on chromosome-associated regulatory RNAs(carRNAs),including repeat RNAs,plays important roles in tuning the chromatin state and transcription,but the intrinsic mechanism remains unclear.Here,we report that YTHDC1 plays indispensable roles in the self-renewal and differentiation potency of mouse embryonic stem cells(ESCs),which highly depends on the m^(6)A-binding ability.Ythdcl is required for sufficient rRNA synthesis and repression of the 2-cell(2C)transcriptional program in ESCs,which recapitulates the transcriptome regulation by the LINE1 scaffold.Detailed analyses revealed that YTHDC1 recognizes m^(6)A on LINE1 RNAs in the nucleus and regulates the formation of the LINE1-NCL partnership and the chromatin recruitment of KAP1.Moreover,the establishment of H3K9me3 on 2C-related retrotrans-posons is interrupted in Ythdcl-depleted ESCs and inner cell mass(ICM)cells,which consequently increases the transcriptional activities.Our study reveals a role of m^(6)A in regulating the RNA scaffold,providing a new model for the RNA-chromatin cross-talk.

Xrcc1增强碱基切除修复能力进而提高诱导多能干细胞基因组稳定性和多能性的研究

诱导多能干细胞(iPSC)因其强大的自我更新和分化能力而具有广阔的应用前景.然而,多个研究表明体细胞诱导重编程过程会引入数以千计的遗传畸变,进而带来临床应用的安全性问题,已有前期研究证明单核苷酸变异(SNVs)的逐渐积累会致使iPSC丧失发育潜能,但致使SNVs产生并积累的原因还尚未探明.本研究通过对不同DNA损伤修复通路的筛选验证后,发现重编程过程早中期碱基切除修复(BER)效率的不足是导致SNVs积累的重要原因,进一步的研究发现XRCC1可以显著增强重编程前中期的BER,从而降低引入的SNVs,提高iPSC基因组的稳定性.同时,XRCC1介导的BER增强也提高了体细胞诱导重编程的效率.更为重要的是,体内嵌合体实验证实高效的BER可以显著提高iPSC的质量.综上,该研究可以有效提高iPSC基因组的稳定性和多能性,为其临床应用的安全性提供了新思路.

Genome transfer for the prevention of female infertility caused by maternal gene mutation

Poor oocyte quality is associated with early embryo developmental arrest and infertility.Maternal gene plays crucial roles in the regulation of oocyte maturation,and its mutation is a common cause of female infertility.However,how to improve oocyte quality and develop effective therapy for maternal gene mutation remains elusive.Here,we use Zar1 as an example to assess the feasibility of genome transfer to cure maternal gene mutationecaused female infertility.We first discover that cytoplasmic deficiency primarily leads to Zar1-null embryo developmental arrest by disturbing maternal transcript degradation and minor zygotic genome activation(ZGA)during the maternal-zygotic transition.We next perform genome transfer at the oocyte(spindle transfer or polar body transfer)and zygote(early pronuclear transfer or late pronuclear transfer)stages to validate the feasibility of preventing Zar1 mutationecaused infertility.We finally demonstrate that genome transfer either at the oocyte or at the early pronuclear stage can support normal preimplantation embryo development and produce live offspring.Moreover,those pups grow to adulthood and show normal fertility.Therefore,our findings provide an effective basis of therapies for the treatment of female infertility caused by maternal gene mutation.

BMP4 preserves the developmental potential of mESCs through Ube2s-and Chmp4b-mediated chromosomal stability safeguarding

Chemically defined medium is widely used for culturing mouse embryonic stem cells(mESCs),in which N2B27 works as a substitution for serum,and GSK3βand MEK inhibitors(2i)help to promote ground-state pluripo-tency.However,recent studies suggested that MEKi might cause irreversible defects that compromise the developmental potential of mESCs.Here,we demon-strated the deficient bone morphogenetic protein(BMP)signal in the chemically defined condition is one of the main causes for the impaired pluripotency.Mechanisti-cally,activating the BMP signal pathway by BMP4 could safeguard the chromosomal integrity and proliferation capacity of mESCs through regulating downstream tar-gets Ube2s and Chmp4b.More importantly,BMP4 pro-motes a distinct in vivo developmental potential and a long-term pluripotency preservation.Besides,the pluripotent improvements driven by BMP4 are superior to those by attenuating MEK suppression.Taken together,our study shows appropriate activation of BMP signal is essential for regulating functional pluripotency and reveals that BMP4 should be applied in the serum-free culture system.

Correction to:Nuclear m6A reader YTHDC1 regulates the scaffold function of LINE1 RNA in mouse ESCs and early embryos

CORRECTION TO:PROTEIN CELL(2021)HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1007/S13238-021-00837-8 In the original publication of the article figure 1 is incorrectly published.The correct Figure 1 is provided in this correction.OPEN ACCESS This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,which permits use,sharing,adaptation,distribution and reproduction in any medium or format,as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s)and the source,provide a link to the Creative Commons licence,and indicate if changes were made.The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence,unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use,you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.To view a copy of this licence,visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.