Discovery of a novel oocyte-specific Kr üppel-associated box domain-containing zinc finger protein required for early embryogenesis in cattle

Publication date: Available online 2 March 2017 Source:Mechanisms of Development Author(s): Jacqelyn M. Hand, Kun Zhang, Lei Wang, Prasanthi P. Koganti, Kristen Mastrantoni, Sandeep K. Rajput, Mohamed Ashry, George W. Smith, Jianbo Yao Zinc finger (ZNF) transcription factors interact with DNA through zinc finger motifs and play important roles in a variety of cellular functions including cell growth, proliferation, development, apoptosis, and intracellular signal transduction. One-third of ZNF proteins in metazoans contain a highly conserved N-terminal motif known as the Krüppel-associated box (KRAB) domain, which acts as a potent, DNA-binding dependent transcriptional repression module. Analysis of RNA-Seq data generated from a bovine oocyte cDNA library identified a novel transcript, which encodes a KRAB-containing ZNF transcription factor (named ZNFO). Characterization of ZNFO mRNA expression revealed that it is exclusively expressed in bovine oocytes and early embryos. A GFP reporter assay demonstrated that ZNFO protein localizes specifically to the nucleus, supporting its role in transcriptional regulation. To test the role of ZNFO in early embryonic development, zygotes were generated by in vitro maturation and fertilization of oocytes, and injected with small interfering RNA (siRNA) designed to knockdown ZNFO. Cleavage rates were not affected by ZNFO siRNA injection. However, embryonic development to 8- to 16-cell stage and blastocyst stage was significantl...
Source: Mechanisms of Development - Category: Biology Source Type: research