BioProject

Embryos generated with the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can develop overgrowth syndromes. More...

Embryos generated with the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can develop overgrowth syndromes. In ruminants, the condition is referred to as large offspring syndrome (LOS) and exhibits variable phenotypic abnormalities including overgrowth, enlarged tongue, and abdominal wall defects. These characteristics recapitulate those observed in the human loss-of-imprinting (LOI) overgrowth syndrome Beckwith-Wiedemann (BWS). We have recently shown LOI at the KCNQ1 locus in LOS, the most common epimutation in BWS. Although the first case of ART-induced LOS was reported in 1995, studies have not yet determined the extent of LOI in this condition. Here, we determined allele-specific expression of imprinted genes previously identified in human and/or mouse in day 105 Bos taurus indicus X Bos taurus taurus F1 hybrid control and LOS fetuses using RNAseq. Our analysis allowed us to determine the monoallelic expression of 20 genes in tissues of control fetuses. LOS fetuses displayed variable LOI when compared to controls. Biallelic expression of imprinted genes in LOS was associated with tissue-specific hypomethylation of the normally methylated parental allele. In addition, a positive correlation was observed between bodyweight and the number of biallelically expressed imprinted genes in LOS fetuses. Further, not only was there loss of allele-specific expression of imprinted genes in LOS, but we also observed differential transcript amounts of these genes between control and overgrown fetuses. In summary, we characterized previously unidentified imprinted genes in bovine and identified misregulation of imprinting at multiple loci in LOS. We concluded that LOS is a multi-locus loss-of-imprinting syndrome, as is BWS. Overall design: Imprinted gene expression in kidney, skeletal muscle, liver, and brain of four control and large offspring syndrome(LOS) fetuses were studied using RNAseq Less...