Mitofusin 2 is essential for oocyte and follicle development, and to maintain ovarian follicular reserve during reproductive aging [GV]

We performed RNAseq analysis to determine the effect of MFN2 deletion on oocyte global gene expression profile. RNAseq revealed a total of 363 genes were significantly differentially expressed (p<0.05) in Mfn2-/- GV oocytes compared to WT (241 up-regulated and 122 down-regulated). Gene ontology (GO) analysis indicated significant over-representation of elements involved in regulation of embryonic development, cell death and survival, and cell morphology. Pathway analysis of top10 upregulated and downregulated annotated genes are listed. Our findings provide new insight into the role of MFN2 in the oocytes, and may help understand the potential mechanism of subfertility and reproductive aging associated with MFN2-deficiency. Overall design: GV oocytes were collected from 8-week-old Mfn2-/- and WT mice (n=3 for each group) and 5 oocytes from each group were pooled for RNA sequencing analysis.