Metabolic remodeling during early murine early embryo development

During early mammalian embryogenesis, dynamic changes in cell growth and proliferation are tightly linked to the underlying genetic and metabolic regulation. However, our understanding of metabolic reprogramming and its impact on epigenetic regulation in early embryo development remains elusive. We reconstruct their metabolic landscapes from the 2-cell and blastocyst stages, as well as their transition from totipotency to pluripotency. While 2-cell embryos favor methionine, polyamine and glutathione metabolism and stay in a more reductive state, blastocyst embryos have higher mitochondrial metabolites related to the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and present a more oxidative state. Moreover, we identify a reciprocal relationship between α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) and the competitive inhibitor of α-KG-dependent dioxygenases, L-2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG), where 2-cell embryos inherited from oocytes and 1-cell zygotes display higher L-2-HG, whereas blastocysts show higher α-KG.Supplementing 2-HG or knocking down L2hgdh, a gene encoding the 2-HG consuming enzyme L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase impeded erasure of global histone methylation markers . Together, our data demonstrate dynamic and interconnected metabolic, transcriptional and epigenetic network remodeling during murine early embryo development. We have finished the RNA-seq to investigate the effect of 2-HG and α-KG on early mouse embryo from 2PN to blastocyst. The blastocyst was used to perform the high-throughput analysis.