Small RNA (sRNA) pathway component expression in human oocytes and embryos. (A) Human four-cell (left) and eight-cell (right) embryos immunostained with DGCR8 (green) and DICER1 (magenta) antibodies. Nuclei are counterstained with DAPI (blue). Overlay of a single representative z-plane and the corresponding z-planes are shown. Nucleus and bright field channels are on the right side of each overlay. Scale bar is 50 μm. Expression levels (RPKM) in human oocytes and preimplantation embryos (Yan et al. 2013): (B) miRNA pathway gene, DGCR8, DROSHA, DICER1, and AGO1-4; (C) piRNA pathway gene, PLD6, HENMT1, and PIWIL1-4. (B,C) Significant expression changes between consecutive developmental stages were assessed using pairwise, two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum tests: (*) FDR < 0.05; (**) FDR < 0.01; (***) FDR < 0.001. The horizontal line in the box plot indicates the expression median.
