Lipid Stores and Lipid Metabolism Associated Gene Expression in Porcine and Bovine Parthenogenetic Embryos Revealed by Fluorescent Staining and RNA-seq.

1. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Sep 5;21(18):6488. doi: 10.3390/ijms21186488. Lipid Stores and Lipid Metabolism Associated Gene Expression in Porcine and Bovine Parthenogenetic Embryos Revealed by Fluorescent Staining and RNA-seq. Kajdasz A(1), Warzych E(2), Derebecka N(3), Madeja ZE(2), Lechniak D(2), Wesoly J(3), Pawlak P(2). Author information: (1)Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-614 Poznan, Poland. (2)Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wolynska 33, 60-637 Poznan, Poland. (3)Laboratory of High Throughput Technologies, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznan, Poland. Compared to other mammalian species, porcine oocytes and embryos are characterized by large amounts of lipids stored mainly in the form of droplets in the cytoplasm. The amount and the morphology of lipid droplets (LD) change throughout the preimplantation development, however, relatively little is known about expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism of early embryos. We compared porcine and bovine blastocyst stage embryos as well as dissected inner cell mass (ICM) and trophoblast (TE) cell populations with regard to lipid droplet storage and expression of genes functionally annotated to selected lipid gene ontology terms using RNA-seq. Comparing the number and the volume occupied by LD between bovine and porcine blastocysts, we have found significant differences both at the level of single embryo and a single blastomere. Aside from different lipid content, we found that embryos regulate the lipid metabolism differentially at the gene expression level. Out of 125 genes, we found 73 to be differentially expressed between entire porcine and bovine blastocyst, and 36 and 51 to be divergent between ICM and TE cell lines. We noticed significant involvement of cholesterol and ganglioside metabolism in preimplantation embryos, as well as a possible shift towards glucose, rather than pyruvate dependence in bovine embryos. A number of genes like DGAT1, CD36 or NR1H3 may serve as lipid associated markers indicating distinct regulatory mechanisms, while upregulated PLIN2, APOA1, SOAT1 indicate significant function during blastocyst formation and cell differentiation in both models. DOI: 10.3390/ijms21186488 PMCID: PMC7555686 PMID: 32899450 [Indexed for MEDLINE] Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.