Maternal Effect Genes in Mammalian Embryogenesis

我们已经确定了一种皮质下母体复合体(SCMC)，它在卵母细胞生长过程中组装，对于受精卵在第一次胚胎细胞分裂后的进展是必不可少的。至少有四种母性编码的蛋白质参与了这种丙二醛复合体的形成：FLOPED、MATER和TLE6相互作用，而Filia独立地与MATE结合。虽然编码这些蛋白的转录本在减数分裂成熟和排卵过程中被降解，但SCMC蛋白在早期胚胎中持续存在。SCMC位于卵子的皮质下，被排除在卵裂期胚胎的细胞与细胞接触的区域之外，并与桑椹胚和囊胚的外部细胞分离。无卵和/或无母卵缺乏体细胞，但可以受精。然而，这些胚胎不会超过卵裂阶段的发育，雌性小鼠是不育的。这些蛋白质在人类中是保守的，类似的母系效应突变可能会导致反复的胚胎丢失。

We have identified a subcortical maternal complex (SCMC) that assembles during oocyte growth and is essential for zygotes to progress beyond the first embryonic cell divisions. At least four maternally encoded proteins contribute to this MDa complex: FLOPED, MATER and TLE6 interact with each other while Filia binds independently to MATER. Although the transcripts encoding these proteins are degraded during meiotic maturation and ovulation, the SCMC proteins persist in the early embryo. The SCMC, located in the subcortex of eggs, is excluded from regions of cell-cell contact in the cleavage-stage embryo and segregates to the outer cells of the morulae and blastocyst. Floped null and/or Mater null eggs lack the SCMC, but can be fertilized. However, these embryos do not progress beyond cleavage stage development and female mice are sterile. The proteins are conserved in humans and similar maternal effect mutations may result in recurrent embryonic loss.