Abstract
Preimplantation development is well conserved across mammalian species, but major differences in developmental kinetics, regulation of early lineage differentiation and implantation require studies in different model organisms, especially to better understand human development. Large domestic species, such as cattle and pig, resemble human development in many different aspects, i.e., the timing of zygotic genome activation, mechanisms of early lineage differentiations and the period until blastocyst formation. In this article, we give an overview of different assisted reproductive technologies, which are well established in cattle and pig and make them easily accessible to study early embryonic development. We outline the available technologies to create genetically modified models and to modulate lineage differentiation as well as recent methodological developments in genome sequencing and imaging, which form an immense toolbox for research. Finally, we compare the most recent findings in regulation of the first lineage differentiations across species and show how alternative models enhance our understanding of preimplantation development.
Highlights
To study the events during preimplantation development, a look beyond the most commonly used mouse model can be vital to discover the often still unknown molecular pathways that regulate the first steps of embryo development
The moment of zygotic genome activation, the first lineage differentiations and maintenance of pluripotency are some aspects that are not always conserved between species, but are very similar in cows and pigs compared to humans
A high ERK activity is found throughout all stages of murine preimplantation development, and only during blastocyst formation a transient ERK inhibition in a subset of cells was found, supporting reports that suggested a low ERK activity resulting in EPI specification, while high ERK activity induces primitive endoderm (PE) formation
Summary
Chair for Molecular Animal Breeding and Biotechnology, Gene Center and Department of Veterinary. Laboratory for Functional Genome Analysis (LAFUGA), Gene Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 81377 Munich, Germany
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