Small RNA expression and miRNA modification dynamics in human oocytes and early embryos
- Pauliina Paloviita1,
- Christel Hydén-Granskog2,
- Dawit A. Yohannes1,
- Priit Paluoja3,
- Juha Kere4,5,6,
- Juha S. Tapanainen1,2,7,8,
- Kaarel Krjutškov3,5,9,
- Timo Tuuri1,2,
- Urmo Võsa10 and
- Sanna Vuoristo1
- 1University of Helsinki, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 00014, Helsinki, Finland;
- 2Helsinki University Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 00029, Helsinki, Finland;
- 3Competence Centre for Health Technologies, 50411, Tartu, Estonia;
- 4Karolinska Institutet, Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, 14152, Huddinge, Sweden;
- 5Stem Cells and Metabolism Research Program, University of Helsinki, 00014, Helsinki, Finland;
- 6Folkhälsan Research Center, 00290, Helsinki, Finland;
- 7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Oulu, 90014, Oulu, Finland;
- 8Oulu University Hospital, Medical Research Centre, PEDEGO Research Unit, 90029, Oulu, Finland;
- 9Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Tartu, 50406, Tartu, Estonia;
- 10Estonian Genome Center, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, 51010, Tartu, Estonia
Abstract
Small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs) play important roles during the oocyte-to-embryo transition (OET), when the maternal phenotype is reprogrammed and the embryo genome is gradually activated. The transcriptional program driving early human development has been studied with the focus mainly on protein-coding RNAs, and expression dynamics of sRNAs remain largely unexplored. We profiled sRNAs in human oocytes and early embryos using an RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) method suitable for low inputs of material. We show that OET in humans is temporally coupled with the transition from predominant expression of oocyte short piRNAs (os-piRNAs) in oocytes, to activation of microRNA (miRNA) expression in cleavage stage embryos. Additionally, 3′ mono- and oligoadenylation of miRNAs is markedly increased in zygotes. We hypothesize that this may modulate the function or stability of maternal miRNAs, some of which are retained throughout the first cell divisions in embryos. This study is the first of its kind elucidating the dynamics of sRNA expression and miRNA modification along a continuous trajectory of early human development and provides a valuable data set for in-depth interpretative analyses.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article, supplemental material, and publication date are at https://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.268193.120.
- Received July 2, 2020.
- Accepted May 5, 2021.
This article is distributed exclusively by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the first six months after the full-issue publication date (see https://genome.cshlp.org/site/misc/terms.xhtml). After six months, it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
