The Fzr1-mediated early embryo stress response impairs fetal growth and metabolic reprogramming of offspring

Stressors during early embryogenesis influence embryo developmental trajectories and have long-term metabolic effect on offspring, but the underlying mechanism remains elusive. We performed RNA-Seq to identify transcriptional differences among control and IVF embryos. Results revealed that DNA damage and the resulting activation of Fzr1 play a central role in early embryo stress responses and subsequently affect metabolic reprogramming in offspring. To investigate the underlying molecular mechanism by which Fzr1 affected embryo development and adult metabolism. We performed RNA-Seq and H3K9me3 ChIP-seq experiments to identify transcriptional and histone modification differences among control and Fzr1-OE blastocysts. To explore the underlying mechanisms of Fzr1 activation-induced metabolic disorder, we performed RNA-Seq on the subcutaneous fat tissues of 4-month-old control and Fzr1-OE mice. We further performed reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) of subcutaneous fat tissues to identify possible DNA methylation alterations that could potentially mediate the intergenerational transmission of the obesity phenotype. Our findings therefore provide a new perspective on the mechanisms underlying transgenerational metabolic reprogramming and will help improve offspring health. mRNA profiles of WT and IVF embryos, and mRNA and H3K9 histone modification profiles of Fzr1-OE and control embryos, as well as mRNA and DNA methylation profiles of fat tissues from Fzr1-OE, IVF and WT mice