Complete preimplantation development in culture of parthenogenetic mouse embryos

Abstract

The present experiments were undertaken to determine whether, in parthenogenesis, heterozygous embryos develop better than homozygous embryos. Such experiments may provide an approach to elucidating whether fertilized embryos develop better than parthenogenetic ones because of heterozygosity, or if the sperm provides another contribution necessary for complete embryonic development. The parthenogenetic embryos studied included uniform haploids after extrusion of the second polar body, mosaic haploids in which each blastomere contained a genetically different haploid nucleus, and heterozygous diploid mouse embryos. Eggs were activated and cultured in a chemically defined medium. About three times as many mosaic haploid or heterozygous diploid eggs developed beyond the 4-cell stage after 98-100 h and to the blastocyst stage after 120 h in culture, than uniform haploid eggs. This indicates that the development of parthenogenetic embryos is probably under genetic control and that there was a better development of the heterozygous embryos. Mosaic haploid embryos showed the same high frequency of development as heterozygous diploids. The results therefore indicate that heterozygosity provided a developmental advantage even when distributed between two genetically different clones of cells in the same embryo.