Reproduction Abstracts

Early embryo development is an exquisitely sensitive period of the developmental continuum, profoundly influencing neonatal and adult health. Maternal and paternal hyperglycaemia is associated with long-term health complications including increased risk of miscarriage, altered birth weight, and increased incidence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome in adult life. The mechanisms underlying this intergenerational transmission of disease remain unclear. New evidence has implicate...

Introduction: G9A-like protein (GLP) plays an important role in early mouse embryonic development as GLP-deficient embryos display severe growth retardation and defects, leading to lethality around embryonic day 9.5. In this study, we investigated the early role of GLP in controlling cell fate decisions by employing siRNA, which depleted both maternal and embryonic GLP mRNA during the mouse pre-implantation embryo. Our study demonstrates that GLP def...

Disruptions during epigenetic reprogramming in developing germ cells may result in the introduction of germline epimutations. These epimutations may cause aberrant gene expression in the developing germline and in the parent’s offspring. This project investigates the impacts of functionally depleting the essential epigenetic modifier polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) on germline formation and development in the next generation. To achieve this we are examining a mouse ...

Introduction: Sex determination is an essential process for the production of dimorphic gametes, sperms and eggs. The sex determination genes in gonadal somatic cells have been well studied, but nothing is known about the mechanism of germline sex determination in vertebrates. We have tackled a totally unaddressed issue using medaka.Materials and methods: Using transgenic medaka in which germ cells were labeled with EGFP, three different types of germ ce...

Globally, malnutrition is the single greatest threat to public health. Maternal malnutrition during pregnancy is detrimental to foetal development and increases the risk of many chronic diseases in later life. Neurological consequences include increased risk of schizophrenia and abnormal anxiety-related behaviour. Previous studies have shown that maternal protein restriction has a negative effect on foetal brain development in vivo and we previously showed an effect o...