RT Journal
A1 Xu, Jiawei
A1 Shu, Yimin
A1 Yao, Guidong
A1 Zhang, Yu
A1 Niu, Wenbin
A1 Zhang, Yile
A1 Ma, Xueshan
A1 Jin, Haixia
A1 Zhang, Fuli
A1 Shi, Senlin
A1 Wang, Yang
A1 Song, Wenyan
A1 Dai, Shanjun
A1 Cheng, Luyao
A1 Zhang, Xiangyang
A1 Xie, Wei
A1 Hsueh, Aaron J.
A1 Sun, Yingpu
T1 Parental methylome reprogramming in human uniparental blastocysts reveals germline memory transition
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2021 
FD September 01 
VO 31 
IS 9 
SP 1519 
OP 1530 
DO 10.1101/gr.273318.120 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/31/9/1519.abstract 
AB Uniparental embryos derived from only the mother (gynogenetic [GG]) or the father (androgenetic [AG]) are unique models for studying genomic imprinting and parental contributions to embryonic development. Human parthenogenetic embryos can be obtained following artificial activation of unfertilized oocytes, but the production of AG embryos by injection of two sperm into one denucleated oocyte leads to an extra centriole, resulting in multipolar spindles, abnormal cell division, and developmental defects. Here, we improved androgenote production by transferring the male pronucleus from one zygote into another haploid androgenote to prevent extra centrioles and successfully generated human diploid AG embryos capable of developing into blastocysts with an identifiable inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE). The GG embryos were also generated. The zygotic genome was successfully activated in both the AG and GG embryos. DNA methylome analysis showed that the GG blastocysts partially retain the oocyte transcription-dependent methylation pattern, whereas the AG blastocyst methylome showed more extensive demethylation. The methylation states of most known imprinted differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were recapitulated in the AG and GG blastocysts. Novel candidate imprinted DMRs were also identified. The production of uniparental human embryos followed by transcriptome and methylome analysis is valuable for identifying parental contributions and epigenome memory transitions during early human development.