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The first murine zygotic transcription is promiscuous and uncoupled from splicing and 3′ processing
Author(s) -
Abe Kenichiro,
Yamamoto Ryoma,
Franke Vedran,
Cao Minjun,
Suzuki Yutaka,
Suzuki Masataka G,
Vlahovicek Kristian,
Svoboda Petr,
Schultz Richard M,
Aoki Fugaku
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.15252/embj.201490648
Subject(s) - biology , maternal to zygotic transition , transcription (linguistics) , chromatin , zygote , genetics , rna splicing , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , gene expression , regulation of gene expression , rna , embryogenesis , linguistics , philosophy
Initiation of zygotic transcription in mammals is poorly understood. In mice, zygotic transcription is first detected shortly after pronucleus formation in 1‐cell embryos, but the identity of the transcribed loci and mechanisms regulating their expression are not known. Using total RNA ‐Seq, we have found that transcription in 1‐cell embryos is highly promiscuous, such that intergenic regions are extensively expressed and thousands of genes are transcribed at comparably low levels. Striking is that transcription can occur in the absence of defined core‐promoter elements. Furthermore, accumulation of translatable zygotic mRNA s is minimal in 1‐cell embryos because of inefficient splicing and 3′ processing of nascent transcripts. These findings provide novel insights into regulation of gene expression in 1‐cell mouse embryos that may confer a protective mechanism against precocious gene expression that is the product of a relaxed chromatin structure present in 1‐cell embryos. The results also suggest that the first zygotic transcription itself is an active component of chromatin remodeling in 1‐cell embryos.