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Stella and Zygotic Reprogramming

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Part of the book series: Epigenetics and Human Health ((EHH))

Abstract

The development of a mouse begins after fertilization, the fusion of the ovulated oocyte with a sperm. During the development of the preimplantation embryo, the parental genomes undergo extensive epigenetic reprogramming, including genome-wide DNA demethylation. Shortly after fertilization, DNA methylation of the paternal genome is rapidly removed by a replication-independent process. In contrast, DNA methylation of the maternal genome is reduced gradually, in a replication-dependent manner. Thus, DNA methylation status is quite different between the paternal and maternal genomes in the zygote stage; this difference is called “epigenetic asymmetry.” Recent studies have revealed that the maternal factor Stella (also known as PGC7 and Dppa3, “developmental pluripotency-associated 3”) is required for both the maintenance of DNA methylation status of some imprinted genes and retrotransposons and for the establishment of epigenetic asymmetry in zygotes.

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Correspondence to Toru Nakano .

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Nakamura, T., Nakano, T. (2015). Stella and Zygotic Reprogramming. In: Meissner, A., Walter, J. (eds) Epigenetic Mechanisms in Cellular Reprogramming. Epigenetics and Human Health. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31974-7_2

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