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Exploring the role of autophagy during early human embryonic development through single-cell transcriptome and methylome analyses

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Abstract

Early human embryogenesis is a very sophisticated process due to its unique gene regulatory network. Autophagy has been suggested to play an important role in mediating the development of early embryonic cells in mammals. However, evidence showing how autophagy regulates early human embryogenesis remains to be further explored. In this study, we systematically investigated the human transcriptome and methylome patterns of autophagy-related (ATG) genes in early embryonic cells at single-cell resolution. We analyzed the transcriptomic data of 365 cells and methylome data of 265 cells. The results showed that most ATG genes remained epigenetically active and were expressed stably throughout early embryogenesis, whereas the dynamics varied among different developmental stages. This evidence indicated that the autophagy pathway was constitutively activated and exerted a fundamental role in early human embryo development. Our work, for the first time, comprehensively reveals the features of autophagy during early human embryo development.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2019YFA0801400, 2017YFA0103801, and 2018YFC1004000) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA16020703).

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  1. Contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, China

    Shi Song, Qianying Guo, Yiru Zhu, Peng Yuan, Zhiqiang Yan, Liying Yan & Jie Qiao

  2. National Clinical Research Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology (Peking University Third Hospital), Beijing, 100191, China

    Shi Song, Qianying Guo, Yiru Zhu, Peng Yuan, Zhiqiang Yan, Liying Yan & Jie Qiao

  3. Key Laboratory of Assisted Reproduction (Peking University), Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100191, China

    Shi Song, Qianying Guo, Yiru Zhu, Peng Yuan, Zhiqiang Yan, Liying Yan & Jie Qiao

  4. Beijing Key Laboratory of Reproductive Endocrinology and Assisted Reproductive Technology, Beijing, 100191, China

    Shi Song, Qianying Guo, Yiru Zhu, Peng Yuan, Zhiqiang Yan, Liying Yan & Jie Qiao

  5. Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, Beijing, 100871, China

    Jie Qiao

  6. Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Jie Qiao

  7. Research Units of Comprehensive Diagnosis and Treatment of Oocyte Maturation Arrest, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100191, China

    Jie Qiao

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  1. Shi Song
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Correspondence to Liying Yan.

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Song, S., Guo, Q., Zhu, Y. et al. Exploring the role of autophagy during early human embryonic development through single-cell transcriptome and methylome analyses. Sci. China Life Sci. 65, 940–952 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-021-1948-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-021-1948-1

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