The early embryonic expression of TFII-I during mouse preimplantation development

We studied the developmentally regulated expression of mouse TFII-I, a founding member of a family of transcription factors characterized by the presence of multiple helix-loop-helix repeat domains. TFII-I and BEN, a second member of this family, are involved in histone modification and SUMOylation. The genes, GTF2I and GTF2IRD1, encoding these proteins in human are located at chromosomal band 7q11.23, within the Williams syndrome critical region. Our immunohistochemical analysis revealed extensive expression of TFII-I at early stages of embryogenesis. Like BEN, TFII-I is detected in the cytoplasm and nuclei of postfertilization through first cleavage stage embryos. However, in E4.5 blastocysts, at the time of implantation, TFII-I is localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm of the inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm. BEN, at this stage, is expressed only in the cytoplasm of trophoblast cells, but not in the ICM [Gene Expr. Patterns, 2003; 3, 577-587]. Using RT-PCR, we detected Gtf2i and Gtf2ird1 mRNA transcripts in unfertilized oocytes, which indicates the maternal expression of these genes. Thus, the early embryonic expression of TFII-I implicates this family of transcription factors in preimplantation development.