The bovine represents an important agriculture species and dairy breeds have experienced intense genetic selection over the last decades. The selection of breeders focused initially on milk production, but now includes feed efficiency, health, and fertility, although these traits show lower heritability. The non-genetic paternal and maternal effects on the next generation represent a new research topic that is part of epigenetics. The evidence for embryo programming from both parents is increasing. Both oocytes and spermatozoa carry methylation marks, histones modifications, small RNAs, and chromatin state variations. These epigenetic modifications may remain active in the early zygote and influence the embryonic period and beyond. In this paper, we review parental non-genetic effects retained in gametes on early embryo development of dairy cows, with emphasis on parental age (around puberty), the metabolism of the mother at the time of conception and in vitro culture (IVC) conditions. In our recent findings, transcriptomic signatures and DNA methylation patterns of blastocysts and gametes originating from various parental and IVC conditions revealed surprisingly similar results. Embryos from all these experiments displayed a metabolic signature that could be described as an “economy” mode where protein synthesis is reduced, mitochondria are considered less functional. In the absence of any significant phenotype, these results indicated a possible similar adaptation of the embryo to younger parental age, post-partum metabolic status and IVC conditions mediated by epigenetic factors.

牛是一种重要的农业物种，奶牛品种在过去几十年中经历了激烈的遗传选择。种鸡的选择最初侧重于产奶量，但现在包括饲料效率、健康和生育力，尽管这些性状的遗传力较低。父系和母系对下一代的非遗传影响代表了表观遗传学的一个新研究课题。来自父母双方的胚胎编程的证据正在增加。卵母细胞和精子都携带甲基化标记、组蛋白修饰、小 RNA 和染色质状态变化。这些表观遗传修饰可能在早期受精卵中保持活跃，并影响胚胎期及以后。在本文中，我们回顾了配子中保留的父母非遗传效应对奶牛早期胚胎发育的影响，重点是父母年龄（青春期左右）、母亲在受孕时的新陈代谢以及体外培养（IVC）条件。在我们最近的研究中，来自各种亲代和 IVC 条件的囊胚和配子的转录组特征和 DNA 甲基化模式显示出惊人的相似结果。所有这些实验的胚胎都显示出一种代谢特征，可以被描述为一种“经济”模式，其中蛋白质合成减少，线粒体被认为功能较弱。在没有任何显着表型的情况下，这些结果表明胚胎可能对较年轻的父母年龄、产后代谢状态和表观遗传因素介导的 IVC 条件有类似的适应。