Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Embryos Show Massive Dysregulation of Genes Involved in Transcription Pathway

Abstract

Transcription is the most fundamental molecular event that occurs with zygotic genome activation (ZGA) during embryo development. However, the potential association between transcription pathways and low cloning efficiency of nuclear transfer (NT) embryos remains elusive. Here, we integrated a series of RNA-seq data on NT embryos to deciphering the molecular barriers of NT embryo development. Comparative transcriptome analysis indicated that incomplete activation of transcription pathways functions as a barrier for NT embryos. Then, the gene regulatory network (GRN) identified that crucial factors responsible for transcription play a coordinated role in epigenome erasure and pluripotency regulation during normal embryo development. But in NT embryos, massive genes involved in transcription pathways were varying degrees of inhibition. Our study therefore provides new insights into understanding the barriers to NT embryo reprogramming.