Abstract
Maternal genes present in mature oocytes play a crucial role in the early development of silkworm. Although maternal genes have been widely studied in many other species, there has been limited research in Bombyx mori. High-throughput next generation sequencing provides a practical method for gene discovery on a genome-wide level. Herein, a transcriptome study was used to identify maternal-related genes from silkworm eggs. Unfertilized eggs from five different stages of early development were used to detect the changing situation of gene expression. The expressed genes showed different patterns over time. Seventy-six maternal genes were annotated according to homology analysis with Drosophila melanogaster. More than half of the differentially expressed maternal genes fell into four expression patterns, while the expression patterns showed a downward trend over time. The functional annotation of these material genes was mainly related to transcription factor activity, growth factor activity, nucleic acid binding, RNA binding, ATP binding, and ion binding. Additionally, twenty-two gene clusters including maternal genes were identified from 18 scaffolds. Altogether, we plotted a profile for the maternal genes of Bombyx mori using a digital gene expression profiling method. This will provide the basis for maternal-specific signature research and improve the understanding of the early development of silkworm.
Highlights
Maternal genes whose RNA or protein products present in oocytes, fertilized egg or early stage of embryo play an important role in the proper developmental stages [1, 2]
The molecular function annotation showed that many orthologous maternal differentially expressed genes (OMDEGs) were related to the transcriptional regulation functions, such as nucleic acid binding (BGIBMGA001950, BGIBMGA003186, BGIBMGA00 4822, BGIBMGA010644, BGIBMGA010673, and BGIBMGA012283), transcription factor activity (BGIBMGA013421), growth factor activity (BGIBMGA010384), methyltransferase activity (BGI BMGA011857) and so on
We found that the Bmcyclin B mRNA amount distinctly declined, which suggested the cyclin B was degraded by the ubiquitin pathway [32]
Summary
Maternal genes whose RNA or protein products present in oocytes, fertilized egg or early stage of embryo play an important role in the proper developmental stages [1, 2]. In the early stages of development, the transition of material to the zygote is accomplished by two processes: the degradation of maternal products and the initiation of the transcription of the zygotic genome [3,4,5]. Maternal genes have been well studied in many species, such as humans, mouse, zebrafish and so on [3, 5,6,7,8,9]. Maternal genes and their functions were well known across various Drosophila species [10,11,12,13,14].
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