Impaired Blastocyst Formation in Lnx2 -Knockdown Mouse Embryos

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 24; no. 2; p. 1385
• Main Authors: Lee, Seung-Jae, Kim, Jaehwan, Han, Gwidong, Hong, Seung-Pyo, Kim, Dayeon, Cho, Chunghee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10.01.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; blastocyst; Blastocyst - metabolism; Blastocysts; Brief Report; Cell Differentiation - genetics; Cell division; Cell growth; Cell lineage; Cell Lineage - genetics; Embryogenesis; Embryonic Development - genetics; Embryos; Female; Gametocytes; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Genes; inner cell mass; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins - metabolism; Lnx2; Mammals - metabolism; Mice; Notch signaling; NUMB protein; Oct-4 protein; Oocytes; Ovaries; Pregnancy; preimplantation embryo; Protein X; Proteins; Specifications; Ubiquitin; Ubiquitin-protein ligase; Lnx2; blastocyst; preimplantation embryo; inner cell mass; Notch signaling
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24021385

Ligand of Numb-protein X 2 (LNX2) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that is known to regulate Notch signaling by participating in NUMB protein degradation. Notch signaling is important for differentiation and proliferation in mammals, and plays a significant role in blastocyst formation during early embryonic development. In this study, we investigated in mouse preimplantation embryos. Expression analysis showed that is expressed in oocytes and preimplantation embryos. -knockdown embryos normally progress to the morula stage, but the majority of them do not develop into normal blastocysts. Transcript analysis revealed that the expression levels of genes critical for cell lineage specification, including octamer-binding transcription factor 4 ( ), are increased in knockdown embryos. Furthermore, the expression levels of Notch and Hippo signaling-related genes are also increased by knockdown. Collectively, our results show that is important for blastocyst formation in mice, suggest that this may act via lineage specification of inner cell mass, and further show that may be involved in transcriptionally regulating various genes implicated in early embryonic development.