Regulation of histone modifications during human early embryo development
Mammalian life begins with the fusion of two terminally differentiated germ cells(fertilization),followed by dramatic and precise epigenetic reprogramming of parental chromatin,forming a totipotent embryo.Studying early embryonic development is an important way to understand the continuation and evolution of species,and also provides an important theoretical basis for female reproductive health and regenerative medicine.However,due to the scarcity and ethical issues of higher mammals'early embryos and the limitations of high-throughput epigenetic modification detection technology,current research on epigenetic reprogramming in early human embryos is not comprehensive.Using the recently established ultra-low input high-throughput sequencing technology,Chinese scientists have revealed the dynamic changes and regulatory mechanisms of multiple histone modifications during human early embryonic development for the first time.This article mainly summarizes these recent research advances and discusses the conservation and species-specificity of histone modification reprogramming in human and mouse early embryos.
human early embryoepigenetic reprogramminghistone modificationzygotic genome activationretro-transposons