Regulation of zygotic gene activation in mouse embryos

It has not been known what genes are transcribed at the initial phase of zygotic gene activation or how zygotic gene activation is regulated after fertilization. The purpose of this project is to clarify the profile of genes transcribed during zygotic gene activation and its regulatory mechanism using mouse preimplantation embryos. For this purpose, by using RNAseq, we will identify the genes transcribed at the 1-cell stage at which minor zygotic gene activation, i.e. the initiation of gene expression from zygotic genome, occurs, and analyze the characteristics of expressed genes, which will be promising way to elucidate the mechanism regulating zygotic gene activation.