Profiling the transcriptomic signatures and identifying the patterns of zygotic genome activation – a comparative analysis between early porcine embryos and their counterparts in other three mammalian species

BACKGROUND: The transcriptional changes around zygotic genome activation (ZGA) in preimplantation embryos are critical for studying mechanisms of embryonic developmental arrest and searching for key transcription factors. However, studies on the transcription profile of porcine ZGA are limited. RESULTS: In this study, we performed RNA sequencing in porcine in vivo developed (IVV) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryo at different stages and compared the transcriptional activity of porcine embryos with mouse, bovine and human embryos. The results showed that the transcriptome map of the early porcine embryos was significantly changed at the 4-cell stage, and 5821 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in SCNT embryos failed to be reprogrammed or activated during ZGA, which mainly enrichment to metabolic pathways. c-MYC was identified as the highest expressed transcription factor during ZGA. By treating with 10,058-F4, an inhibitor of c-MYC, the cleavage rate (38.33 ± 3.4%) and blastocyst rate (23.33 ± 4.3%) of porcine embryos were significantly lower than those of the control group (50.82 ± 2.7% and 34.43 ± 1.9%). Cross-species analysis of transcriptome during ZGA showed that pigs and bovines had the highest similarity coefficient in biological processes. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that there were 10 co-shared pathways in the four species. CONCLUSIONS: Our results reveal that embryos with impaired developmental competence may be arrested at an early stage of development. c-MYC helps promote ZGA and preimplantation embryonic development in pigs. Pigs and bovines have the highest coefficient of similarity in biological processes during ZGA. This study provides an important reference for further studying the reprogramming regulatory mechanism of porcine embryos during ZGA. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-09015-4.