Molecular Basis of Differential Gene Expression in Themouse Preimplantation Embryo

Molecular basis of differential gene expression in the mouse preimplantation embryo

Preimplantation development of the mammalian embryo consists of stages that include formation of the zygote, blastocyst formation and implantation of the embryo into the uterus. Depending on the animal, first few cleavages of the early embryo is fully supported by translation of maternal transcripts and use of maternal proteins. After this period, the preimplantation embryo starts to transcribe...

Gene expression in the mouse preimplantation embryo.

Mouse preimplantation development represents a tightly controlled programme of gene expression and cell division, which starts with the fertilized egg and ends with implantation of the blastocyst approximately 4.5 days later. Spatial and temporal differences in gene expression underpin establishment of axes at the two-cell stage and development of the trophectoderm and inner cell mass after emb...

Study of gene expression with molecular biological methods during mammalian embryo preimplantation development

A global view of gene expression in the preimplantation mouse embryo: morula versus blastocyst.

As a first step to understand preimplantation development, we performed global gene-expression profiling of morula and blastocyst using the NIA 15k mouse cDNA microarray. Gene expression levels were measured four times for blastocyst and five times for morula. Student's t-test at the 5% significance level identified 428 genes upregulated and 748 downregulated in blastocyst compared to morula. T...

Progressive maturation of chromatin structure regulates HSP70.1 gene expression in the preimplantation mouse embryo.

In the widely studied model organisms, Drosophila and Xenopus, early embryogenesis involves an extended series of nuclear divisions prior to activation of the zygotic genome. The mammalian embryo differs in that the early cleavage phase is already characterized by regulated cell cycles with specific zygotic gene expression. In the mouse, where major activation of the zygotic genome occurs at th...

Genetic basis of differential opsin gene expression in cichlid fishes.

Visual sensitivity can be tuned by differential expression of opsin genes. Among African cichlid fishes, seven cone opsin genes are expressed in different combinations to produce diverse visual sensitivities. To determine the genetic architecture controlling these adaptive differences, we analysed genetic crosses between species expressing different complements of opsin genes. Quantitative gene...