Chen Xianju, Wang Tiedong, Lv Qingyan, Wang Anfeng, Ouyang Hongsheng, Li Zhanjun
Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Embryo Engineering, College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Embryo Engineering, College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
Gene. 2014 Nov 15;552(1):204-8. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2014.09.035. Epub 2014 Sep 19.
It is generally believed that aberrant expression of imprinted genes participates in growth retardation of mammalian parthenogenesis. Neuronatin (NNAT), a paternally expressed gene, plays important roles in neuronal growth and metabolic regulation. Here we have compared the gene expression and promoter methylation pattern of NNAT between pig normally fertilized (Con) and parthenogenetic (PA) embryos. The results showed loss of NNAT expression (p<0.001) and hypermethylation of NNAT promoter in PA samples. Additionally, partial methylation was observed in Con fetuses, while almost full methylation and unmethylation of NNAT promoter were apparent in Metaphase II (MII) oocytes and mature sperms, respectively, which identified the CpG promoter region as a putative differentially methylated region (DMR) of NNAT. The data demonstrate that promoter hypermethylation is associated with the silencing of NNAT in pig PA fetuses, which may be related to developmental failure of pig parthenogenesis at early stages.
一般认为，印记基因的异常表达参与了哺乳动物孤雌生殖的生长迟缓。神经节苷脂（NNAT）是一种父源表达基因，在神经元生长和代谢调节中起重要作用。在此，我们比较了猪正常受精（Con）胚胎和孤雌生殖（PA）胚胎之间NNAT的基因表达和启动子甲基化模式。结果显示，PA样本中NNAT表达缺失（p<0.001）且NNAT启动子发生高甲基化。此外，在Con胎儿中观察到部分甲基化，而在中期II（MII）卵母细胞和成熟精子中分别明显出现几乎完全甲基化和未甲基化，这确定了CpG启动子区域为NNAT的一个假定差异甲基化区域（DMR）。数据表明，启动子高甲基化与猪PA胎儿中NNAT的沉默相关，这可能与猪孤雌生殖早期发育失败有关。
