Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: NFYA regulates two sequential genome-wide transcriptional activation events during oocyte to embryo transition
doi: 10.64898/2026.03.30.715371
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Left upper panel: schematic diagram of the experimental design. Left lower panel: the embryo development rate upon DMSO or G&V treatment (Ganetespib 5nM and VER155008 5μM). The data are presented as mean ± SEM. [DMSO, n = 67; G&V (1C-B), n = 64; G&V (4C-B), n = 47. N represents the total number of embryos from two independent experiments]. Right panel: representative images of blastocyst stage embryos after chaperones inhibition (G&V). Scale bar,100 μm. Red arrows indicate representative arrested embryos in G&V (1C-B) group. (B) Scatter plots comparing gene expression profiles of late-2cell embryos treated with G&V or DMSO. The x and y axis of the dot plots are Log 2 CPM from RNA-seq. Fold change > 2, FDR < 0.05. ZGA genes, n=2,773. (C) Venn diagram showing the overlapped downregulated ZGA genes between NFYA depleted (NFYA-dTAG) and G&V treated L2C embryos. P values (Fisher’s exact test, two-sided) for overlapped genes are also shown. (D) Upper panel: schematic diagram of the experimental design. Lower left panel: ovarian morphology of 6 days in vitro cultured P4 ovaries with DMSO and G&V treatment. DDX4 stained oocytes. The white arrowhead indicates representative growing oocytes. Scale bar, 50 μm. Lower right panel: numbers of growing oocytes (DDX4 positive oocytes bigger than 25 μm in diameter that were surrounded by cuboidal granulosa cells) in each ovary after 6 days culture with DMSO and G&V treatment. Quantitative data are shown as mean ± SEM; ∗∗p < 0.01, Student’s t test. (E) Scatter plots comparing the gene expression profiles of growing oocytes (GOs) from 6 days in vitro cultured P4 ovaries with G&V or DMSO. The x and y axis of the dot plots are Log 2 CPM from RNA-seq. Fold change > 2, FDR < 0.05. PFA genes, n=2,463. (F) Venn diagram showing the overlapped downregulated PFA genes between Nfy a-cKO and G&V treated GOs. P values (Fisher’s exact test, two-sided) for overlapped genes are also shown. (G) Model illustrating the role of NFYA in PFA and ZGA. Before PFA (primordial), the PFA genes are silenced. Subsequently (primary and secondary), NFYA binding promotes open chromatin and activates PFA genes through promoter and distal binding. Loss of NFYA leads to reduced chromatin accessibility, defective PFA, and early follicular degeneration. Before ZGA (1C), the ZGA genes are silenced. Subsequently (L2C), NFYA activates ZGA genes through promoter and enhancer binding. Loss of NFYA leads to defective ZGA and predominantly embryo arrest at 2-cell stage. (H) NFYA pre-occupies and regulates a set of genes, including chaperones and histone genes, common in both PFA and ZGA through conserved promoter binding.
Article Snippet: Ganetespib (MCE, HY-15205) and VER155008 (Selleckchem, S7751) were reconstituted in DMSO to a 100 mM or 150 mM stocks, respectively.
Techniques: Inhibition, Gene Expression, RNA Sequencing, In Vitro, Cell Culture, Staining, Binding Assay