Use of proteomics to identify highly abundant maternal factors that drive the egg-to-embryo transition

As IVF becomes an increasingly popular method for human reproduction, it is more critical than ever to understand the unique molecular composition of the mammalian oocyte. DNA microarray studies have successfully provided valuable information regarding the identity and dynamics of factors at the transcriptional level. However, the oocyte transcribes and stores a large amount of material that plays no obvious role in oogenesis, but instead is required to regulate embryogenesis. Therefore, an accurate picture of the functional state of the oocyte requires both transcriptional profiling and proteomics. Here, we summarize our previous studies of the oocyte proteome, and present new panels of oocyte proteins that we recently identified in screens of metaphase II-arrested mouse oocytes. Importantly, our studies indicate that several abundant oocyte proteins are not, as one might predict, ubiquitous housekeeping proteins, but instead are unique to the oocyte. Furthermore, mouse studies indicate that a number of these factors arise from maternal effect genes (MEGs). One of the identified MEG proteins, peptidylarginine deiminase 6, localizes to and is required for the formation of a poorly characterized, highly abundant cytoplasmic structure: the oocyte cytoplasmic lattices. Additionally, a number of other MEG-derived abundant proteins identified in our proteomic screens have been found by others to localize to another unique oocyte feature: the subcortical maternal complex. Based on these observations, we put forth the hypothesis that the mammalian oocyte contains several unique storage structures, which we have named maternal effect structures, that facilitate the oocyte-to-embryo transition.