Delayed sperm incorporation into parthenogenetic mouse eggs: Sperm nucleus transformation and development of resulting embryos

In this study we examined the effect of experimentally induced asynchrony between male and female pronuclei on male pronucleus formation and developmental potential of the resulting mouse embryos. We demonstrate that when the interval between oocyte activation and sperm incorporation is up to 1.5–2 hr, the spermatozoa transform into normal pronuclei. These male pronuclei can replicate their chromosomes during the first embryonic cell cycle and are transcriptionally competent. During the first cleavage these “delayed” male pronuclei condense into discrete mitotic chromosomes and when resulting embryos are transplanted into oviducts of pregnant females at least some of them can develop to term. In contrast, when sperm nuclei are introduced into parthenogenetic eggs 3 hr or more after activation, their transformation into pronuclei is significantly impaired, and they neither replicate nor transcribe. During the first mitosis they form a group of condensed chromatin, which is displaced into one of the resulting blastomeres leading to formation of haploid/diploid mosaic embryos. These mosaic embryos have poor developmental potential: only a few can reach blastocyst stage in vitro and no full‐term development of such embryos was observed after transfer into pregnant females. We conclude that the cytoplasmic factors that make possible the transformation of a sperm nucleus into a functional male pronucleus exhaust within 1.5–2 hr after fertilization and that the male genome which had skipped the first cell cycle cannot become a functional partner in the embryonic genome. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 54:303–310, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.