The Novel Role of Zfp296 in Mammalian Embryonic Genome Activation as an H3K9me3 Modulator

The changes in epigenetic modifications during early embryonic development significantly impact mammalian genome activation (EGA) and are species-conserved to some degree. Here, we reanalyzed the published RNA-Seq of human, mouse, goat embryos found that Zfp296 (zinc finger protein 296) expression was higher at EGA stage than oocyte all three species (adjusted p-value < 0.05 |log2(foldchange)| ≥ 1). Subsequently, conserved across goat, sheep, pig, bovine embryos. In addition, identified ZFP296 interacts with regulators KDM5B, SMARCA4, DNMT1, DNMT3B, HP1β, UHRF1. Cys2-His2(C2H2) zinc domain TYPE2 TYPE3 domains co-regulated modification level trimethylation lysine 9 on histone H3 subunit (H3K9me3). According ChIP-seq analysis, also enriched Trim28, Suv39h1, Setdb1, Kdm4a, Ehmt2 mESC genome. Then, knockdown late zygote mouse led developmental arrest failure resulting from a decrease H3K9me3. Together, our results reveal is an H3K9me3 modulator which essential