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Updated: Aug 30, 2025

Defining the Program of Maternal mRNA Translation during In vitro Maturation using a Single Oocyte Reporter Assay
Published on: June 16, 2021
Disrupted expression of long non-coding RNAs in the human oocyte: the possible epigenetic culprits leading to
Lina Wei1, Huayang Xia2, Zhongkun Liang2
1Division of Histology and Embryology, International Joint Laboratory for Embryonic Development and Prenatal Medicine, Medical College, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
Purpose:
To depict the lncRNA expression during human oocyte maturation and explore the lncRNAs leading to recurrent oocyte maturation arrest.
Methods:
LncRNA sequencing was performed on pooled RNA from 20 oocytes of each group (recurrent oocyte maturation arrest (ROMA), of germinal vesicle (GV), metaphase I (MI), or metaphase II (MII) stages. Bioinformatics software was deployed to compare the lncRNA differential expression between the normal and ROMA oocytes. The co-expression of lncRNA/mRNA was illustrated with the Cytoscape software. The pooled RNA from every 10 oocytes of each group (ROMA, GV, MI, MII) was extracted for further qPCR validation.
Results:
There were 17 downregulated and 3 upregulated lncRNAs in the ROMA oocyte. Among them, co-expression analysis indicated that NEAT1 and NORAD were both downregulated. Basing on the KEGG enrichment analysis, PRCKA and JAK3 might be the target genes in the PI3K-Akt pathway and modulated by NEAT1 and NORAD. As validated by qPCR, the expressional levels of lncRNA candidates (NEAT1 and NORAD) and their target genes (PRKCA and JAK3) were confirmed to be extremely lower in the ROMA oocyte than in the normal oocyte.
Conclusion:
By targeting the PI3K-Akt pathway genes PRKCA and JAK3, the abnormal expression of NEAT1 and NORAD is suggested to impede oocyte maturation and impair oocyte genome integrity.
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