Reproduction Abstracts

Dynamic epigenetic reprogramming occurs during mammalian germ cell development, whereas the targets of this process including DNA methylation/demethylation remain poorly understood. Here, we examined genome-wide methylation profiles in developing and fully developed germ cells of mice using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS). We scaled down the construction and analysis to nanogram quantities of DNA by generating a new WGBS library, termed the post-bisulfite adapter tagg...

Epimutations are heritable defects in epigenetic programming that do not involve changes in the underlying DNA sequence and may or may not impact gene expression. Epimutations can occur naturally, but are more likely to be induced by environmental factors that disrupt the normal epigenome. Previous studies have shown that the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can induce epimutations in the offspring produced. We chronicled the occurrence of epimtuations in mice p...

Introduction: Obesity and diabetes have adverse effects on germ cell quality, embryo development, fertility, and the health of offspring. However, the underlying mechanisms responsible for the negative effects of obesity and diabetes are little known.Materials and methods: A high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced maternal obese mouse model, streptozotocin (STZ)-induced and nonobese diabetic (NOD) maternal diabetic mouse models, and HFD combined with STZ-induced pat...