Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Analysis of Chromosome Segregation, Histone Acetylation, and Spindle Morphology in Horse Oocytes
Published on: May 11, 2017
Asymmetric histone 3 methylation pattern between paternal and maternal pronuclei in equine zygotes
Sonia Heras1, Katrien Smits1, Bart Leemans1
1Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Abstract:
Hoechst staining has traditionally been used to evaluate fertilization and parental origin of pronuclei. However, prevalence of parthenogenetic activation cannot be distinguished accurately by this protocol, and variation of relative pronuclear size and position makes it impossible to determine parental origin. We demonstrate that in equine zygotes, the epigenetic modification histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) shows an asymmetric pattern between maternal and paternal pronuclei. H3K9me3 immunostaining appears to be a robust technique to identify the parent of origin of equine pronuclei; it can be used in combination with 5-methylcytosine and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine immunostaining and applied to evaluate fertilization.
Related Concept Videos
Inheritance of Chromatin Structures
Genomic Imprinting and Inheritance
The expression of some genes depends on which parent passed the gene to the offspring, through a phenomenon known as...
Heterochromatin
Constitutive heterochromatin: It is a highly compact region of chromatin that is mostly concentrated in the centromere and telomere. Unlike euchromatin, the amino acid at...
Position-effect Variegation
Euchromatin
Euchromatin is the less dense region of the chromatin and stains lighter. Euchromatin contains histone H3 extensively...
Animal Mitochondrial Genetics

