BioProject

How the parental genomes of the very specialized sperm and oocyte cells are remodelled upon fertilization to confer totipotency has remained a tantalizing open questions. More...

How the parental genomes of the very specialized sperm and oocyte cells are remodelled upon fertilization to confer totipotency has remained a tantalizing open questions. Indeed, in the case of mammals, the parental genomes undergo dramatic reprogramming upon fertilization, including differential dynamics of histone post-translational modifications. The roles of histone modifying enzymes in this process, which are maternally provided, are only just starting to emerge. Here, we explore the function of the oocyte inherited pool of Lsd1/Kdm1a, which encodes a histone H3K4 and K9 demethylase, during early mouse development. Maternal deficiency of Lsd1/Kdm1a results in developmental arrest by the two-cell stage, associated with dramatic and stepwise alterations in H3K9 and H3K4 methylation patterns depending on its demethylase activity. At the transcriptional level, two major changes occur. On one hand, switch from maternal-to-zygotic program fails to be induced. On the other hand, LINE-1 retrotransposons are not properly silenced, along with evidences for increased LINE-1 activity. We propose that Lsd1/Kdm1a is involved in the correct establishment of epigenetic information harboured by histones and is involved in the initiation of new pattern of genome expression driving early mouse development and preserving genome integrity Overall design: RNA-seq of invidual mouse two-cell stage embryos Less...