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Vertebrate reproductive science and technology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Quantitative expression analysis of blastocyst-derived gene transcripts in preimplantation developmental stages of in vitro-produced bovine embryos using real-time polymerase chain reaction technology

Nermin El-Halawany A , Siriluck Ponsuksili A , Klaus Wimmers A , Markus Gilles A , Dawit Tesfaye A B and Karl Schellander A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute of Animal Breeding Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany.

B Corresponding author. Email: tesfaye@itz.uni-bonn.de

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 16(8) 753-762 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD04041
Submitted: 7 April 2004  Accepted: 11 October 2004   Published: 13 January 2005

Abstract

The main objective of the present study was to analyse the quantitative expression pattern of genes from a subtracted blastocyst transcriptome throughout the preimplantation developmental stages of in vitro-produced bovine oocytes and embryos. For this purpose, Day 5 morula (M) cDNAs were subtracted from Day 7 blastocyst (B) cDNAs (B–M) and used to establish a B–M subtracted cDNA library, as reported previously. From the total generated clones, 19 were analysed quantitatively. The mRNA samples isolated from pools of immature oocytes (n = 150), mature oocytes (n = 150) and two-cell (n = 80), four-cell (n = 40), eight-cell (n = 20), morula (n = 6) and blastocyst (n = 3) embryos were reverse transcribed and subjected to real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using sequence-specific primers and SYBR green as the DNA dye. A relative standard curve method was used to analyse the real-time data taking the morula stage as a calibrator. Applying suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH), a total of 71 clones, which represent 33 different expressed sequence tags, were generated and available for analysis. Most transcripts were analysed for the first time in bovine embryogenesis. The real-time PCR has validated the results of SSH positively for 84% (16/19) of transcripts, whereas 16% (3/19) showed deviation in the expression pattern from the one seen during SSH. Several transcript-specific expression patterns were observed for genes that play decisive roles in bovine embryogenesis. In addition to identification, accurately quantifying the expression profiles of transcripts during development will pave the way towards understanding the molecular mechanisms of embryogenesis and their potential role in early embryo development. Most importantly, the present study has contributed to the enrichment of bovine embryo gene collection by generating new transcripts involved in bovine embryo development.

Extra keywords: bovine development, gene expression pattern, preimplantation embryo, suppression subtractive hybridisation.


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