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Published on: January 4, 2017
USP7 reduction leads to developmental failure of mouse early embryos
Xue Zhang1, Xue-Feng Xie1, Ang Li2
1Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Postdoctoral Research Station of Basic Medicine, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong-Hong Kong Metabolism & Reproduction Joint Laboratory, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Medical College, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
Abstract:
As a member of Ubiquitin-specific protease subfamily, ubiquitin specific protease 7 (USP7) has been reported to participate in a variety of cellular processes, including cell cycle, apoptosis, DNA damage response, and epigenetic modification. However, its function in preimplantation embryos is still obscure. To investigate the functions of USP7 during preimplantation embryo development, we used siRNA to degrade endogenous USP7 messenger RNA. We found that USP7 knockdown significantly decreased the development rate of mouse early embryos. Moreover, depletion of USP7 induced the accumulation of the DNA lesions and apoptotic blastomeres in early embryos. In addition, USP7 knockdown caused an abnormal H3K27me3 modification in 2-cell embryos. Overall, our results indicate that USP7 maintains genome stability perhaps via regulating H3K27me3 and DNA damage, consequently controlling the embryo quality.
