502
It is important to mention that the four phases above represent a grossly
simplified concept. In reality, RNA half-life during OET is a dynamically
changing summation of multiple stronger and weaker regulations of cis- and
trans-acting factors, while degradation of a specific transcript usually extends
from one phase into another.
10.2.2.1 Dynamics of Maternal Poly(A) RNA During OET
Estimations of poly(A) RNA content during meiotic maturation and early
development of mice and cattle provided initial insights into the dynamics of dead-
enylation and mRNA degradation (Fig. 10.5). Maternal mRNAs in mouse oocytes
Fig. 10.7 Waves of
maternal mRNA
degradation during mouse
OET. Shown is the
normalized microarray
hybridization signal on
individual MOE430 arrays
from different stages
(columns) for 300
oocyte-specific genes
(rows). Oocyte-specific
genes were extracted from
the BioGPS database (Su
et al. 2004 ). OET
expression was built from
published datasets
deposited in the GEO
database (Su et al. 2007 ;
Zeng and Schultz 2005 ;
Zeng et al. 2004 ). The
color scale indicates
relative transcript
abundance
P. Svoboda et al.