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Haploid male germ cell‐ and oocyte‐specific Mbd3l1 and Mbd3l2 genes are dispensable for early development, fertility, and zygotic DNA demethylation in the mouse
Author(s) -
Jin SeungGi,
Tsark Walter,
Szabó Piroska E.,
Pfeifer Gerd P.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
developmental dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.634
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1097-0177
pISSN - 1058-8388
DOI - 10.1002/dvdy.21767
Subject(s) - biology , pronucleus , dna demethylation , zygote , dna methylation , genetics , gene , epigenetics , male pronucleus , germ cell , oocyte , embryo , gene expression , embryogenesis
Genome‐wide erasure of CpG methylation occurs along the paternal pronucleus in fertilized oocytes. This process involves an active, replication‐independent enzymatic step, which has remained enigmatic. MBD3L1 and MBD3L2 are two mammalian homologues of the methyl‐CpG‐binding protein genes MBD2 and MBD3 that arose from recent gene duplication events. Expression of Mbd3l1 occurs specifically in haploid male germ cells. Mbd3l2 expression is restricted to metaphase II oocytes and zygotes making both proteins candidates for the zygotic demethylation process. Neither of these genes was able to promote reactivation of a methylation‐silenced reporter gene. We created Mbd3l1 and Mbd3l2 knockout mice, which were viable and fertile. We show that demethylation of the paternal pronucleus in Mbd3l1 −/− and Mbd3l2 −/− mice is identical to that in wild‐type controls. These data suggest that Mbd3l1 and Mbd3l2 are not involved in genome‐wide demethylation of paternal genomes in mouse zygotes and are dispensable for normal development. Developmental Dynamics 237:3435–3443, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.