SLC- and NDUF-genes expression dynamics in pre-implantation embryonic development between bovine and mouse — A bioinformatics study

Pre-implantation embryonic development (PED) is an important early process in life. Two issues are emerged for PED study. First, malfunction of PED can lead to future problems such as intrauterine growth retardation and diabetes. Second, PED conservation and diversity between species can be used to interpret genetics questions of human and animal health as well as environment protection. One of the best ways to PED study is to examine gene expressions during PED using high-throughput technology. Finding genes conserved in different species allows identification of genes that play key roles in PED, and helps explain the similar traits seen in embryos of diverse species. Furthermore, species-specific regulation of those conserved genes illustrates temporal differences in expressions, and therefore requirement of, essential proteins. Knowing these differences will help recognize the optimal requirements for growing different species embryos. We followed a previous study to use cross-species study approach to reveal the regulation pattern required for PED between mouse and bovine. Genes exhibiting significantly differential expressions between consecutive PED stages were detected for the mouse and bovine species. Among them, examined closely were genes encoding members of solute carrier proteins (slc-genes) and NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) proteins (nduf-genes). The difference between mouse and bovine PED was found temporal. Some species-specific regulation of conserved genes representing disparity in utility of essential proteins during PED was also found in this study.