Expression of chromatin modification genes in organs of cloned cattle that died within hours after b

• 作 者: LI Shijie LIAN Zhengxing LI Do
• 机 构: State Key Laboratory for Agrobiotechnology,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,College
• 出 处: 科学通报（英文版）
• 发表日期: 2004年期
• 关键词: nuclear transfer organ defect birth death gene expression

Cloning by somatic nuclear transfer is an inefficient process in which many of the cloned animals died shortly after birth and displayed organ abnormalities. In an effort to determine the possible genetic causes of neonatal death and organ abnormalities, we have examined expression patterns of four genes that modified chromatin (DNMT1, PCAF,MeCP2 and EED) in six organs (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and brain) of both neonatal death cloned bovines (n=9) and normal control calves produced by artificial insemination (AI) using real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The effect of the age of the fibroblast donor cell on the gene expression profiles was also investigated. Aberrant expressions of DNMT1 and PCAF were found in some studied tissues, but the expression of MeCP2 and EED had similar levels to those of the normal controls. The expression of DNMT1 showed a higher level in heart, liver and brain of both cloned bovines. A higher expression level of PCAF was seen in heart and liver of both cloned bovines, but a lower level was seen only in spleen of adult fibroblast (AF) cell-derived clones. Our results suggest that aberrant expression in gene that modified chromatins were found in cloned bovine tissues of neonatal death. Because DNMT1 and PCAF play an important role in DNA methylation and histone acetylation on nuclear chromatin respectively, and normal expression of DNMT1 and PCAF is needed for precious reprogramming of donor nuclear, the aberrant transcription patterns of DNMT1 and PCAF in these clones 5 contribute to the defects of organs reported in neonatal death of clones.