High expression of Mfn1 promotes early development of bovine SCNT embryos: Improvement of mitochondrial membrane potential and oxidative metabolism

Abstract

Mitofusin 1 (Mfn1) is the main mediator of mitochondrial fusion and homeostasis. To determine whether increased Mfn1expression level could promote the fusion of heteroplasmic mitochondria and development of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos. Embryos were constructed using bovine oocytes as recipient cytoplasm, and Holstein cow fetal fibroblasts with different expression levels of Mfn1 gene as donor nuclei. Mitochondrial membrane potential, ATP and H2O2 generation, as well as the expression level of Mfn1 were detected in different development stages. The results showed that high level of Mfn1 expression significantly improved the embryo development rates by increasing ATP level and Δψm, while reducing H2O2 generation. This study suggests that overexpression of Mfn1 could promote the early development of bovine SCNT embryos via improving oxidative phosphorylation.