Up to now, no primate animals have been successfully cloned with somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and little is known about molecular events occurring in SCNT embryos. DNA methylation reprogramming is likely to have a crucial role in establishing nuclear totipotency in normal development and in cloned animals. Epigenetic characteristics of donor cell nuclei and their epigenetic reprogramming in oocyte cytoplasm have been supposed as major factors influencing the development of SCNT embryos. In Experiment 1, on donor cells used in a previous SCNT at our laboratory, global DNA methylation and histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation (H3K9ac) of three cell lines (S11, S1-04, and S1-03) derived from ear skin were examined after serum starvation by immunofluorescence with monoclonal antibody to 5-methyl cytosine (Oncogene, Science, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA) and anti-acetyl-Histone H3 (Lys 9) (Upstate Jingmei Biotech, Ltd., Shenzhen, China). In the results, two cells lines, S11 and S1-04, supporting higher blastocyst development (about 20%) than that (7.8%) of S1-03, showed a higher level of H3K9ac than the S1-03 cell line. Global DNA methylation levels in the three cell lines were decreased after serum starvation, but no obvious correlation between the level and SCNT embryo developmental potential was found among the three cell lines. In Experiment 2, on SCNT and IVF embryos, global DNA methylation reprogramming during pre-implantation development was investigated with immunofluorescence and laser scanning microscopy techniques. In IVF embryos, active demethylation of paternal genome occurred soon after fertilization; subsequently, passive demethylation resulted in remarkably reduced global methylation level at the 8-cell stage and the morula stage. Thereafter, genomewide remethylation started at the late morula stage and an asymmetric methylation pattern was formed in blastocysts, with higher methylated trophectoderm than inner cell mass (ICM). Compared with IVF embryos, most SCNT 2-cell embryos and ICM in blastocysts showed higher methylation levels, and the asymmetric methylation pattern was not as evident as that in IVF blastocysts. Some SCNT 8-cell embryos showed higher methylation, but others were slightly stained, even lower than IVF embryos. In conclusion, the higher global H3K9 acetylation level of donor cells may benefit chromatin remolding and development of SCNT embryos. Abnormal methylation reprogramming in most SCNT embryos, especially in ICM of blastocysts, may be one main obstacle for primate cloning, although relatively high blastocyst development rate was obtained. DNA methylation reprogramming in rhesus monkey pre-implantation embryos, on the whole, was as conservative as that reported in other mammals.
Global DNA methylation changes in Cucurbitaceae inter-species grafting