41 Delineating the molecular connections between mitotic aneuploidy, micronucleation, and cellular fragmentation in pre-implantation bovine embryos

Abstract

Whole chromosomal abnormalities (aneuploidy) that arise during early embryo development are a major contributor to in vitro fertilization failure. It is estimated that ~50 to 80% of human embryos contain aneuploid cells, which contribute to high levels of chromosomal mosaicism detected by pre-implantation genetic screening. Previous studies estimate that 32 to 88% of bovine embryos are aneuploid at the 2-cell stage, advocating cattle as a physiologically relevant model to study the mechanisms mediating meiotic and/or mitotic errors. In cleavage-stage human embryos, a process called cellular fragmentation is associated with aneuploidy, and when used in conjunction with assessment of early mitotic timing, can largely distinguish chromosomally normal and abnormal embryos. We recently demonstrated that some cellular fragments contain chromosomal material that likely began as mis-segregated chromosomes that were encapsulated into micronuclei. Given that bovine embryos exhibit cellular fragmentation, albeit to a lesser extent than human embryos, we hypothesise that cellular fragmentation is a response to micronucleation and represents a conserved mechanism to eliminate mis-segregated chromosomes from the pre-implantation embryo. Using a combination of live-cell imaging, single-cell DNA-sequencing, whole-embryo RNA-sequencing, quantitative RT-PCR, and multicolour confocal microscopy, we aim to further investigate the correlation between these phenomena using in vitro-produced bovine embryos. Similar to humans, the first three mitotic divisions are able to successfully predict progression to the blastocyst stage (N = 84). Bovine embryos frequently contained multi-/micro-nuclei, and DNA-sequencing of individual bovine blastomeres up to 12 cells confirmed that ~58 to 87% of cleavage-stage bovine embryos are aneuploidy (N = 38) and often detectable by abnormal cell divisions. Transcriptional profiling of fragmented versus non-fragmented bovine embryos via RNA-sequencing identified a small subset of differentially abundant genes at the 4-cell stage. Pathway analysis showed reduced abundance of genes associated with the cytoskeleton, microtubules, and spindle in 4-cell embryos with cellular fragmentation as well as enrichment of membrane targeting and vesicle fusion pathways. The potential role of these cellular components in micronucleation and cellular fragmentation is being assessed by microinjecting bovine zygotes with fluorescently labelled mRNA mCherry-H2B (chromatin marker) and mCitrine-LaminB1 (nuclear envelope marker), followed by overnight live-cell multicolour confocal imaging (Zeiss LSM 880 with AiryScan; Zeiss, Thornwood, NY, USA). Results from these studies contribute to our knowledge of early embryogenesis with translational application to help ameliorate embryonic loss in women and cattle.