PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Zubing Cao
AU  - Di Gao
AU  - Tengteng Xu
AU  - Ling Zhang
AU  - Xu Tong
AU  - Dandan Zhang
AU  - Yiqing Wang
AU  - Wei Ning
AU  - Xin Qi
AU  - Yangyang Ma
AU  - Kaiyuan Ji
AU  - Tong Yu
AU  - Yunsheng Li
AU  - Yunhai Zhang
TI  - Circular RNA profiling in the oocyte and cumulus cells reveals that <em>circARMC4</em> is essential for porcine oocyte maturation
AID  - 10.1101/586024
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 586024
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/22/586024.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/22/586024.full
AB  - Thousands of circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been recently discovered in cumulus cells and oocytes from several species. However, the expression and function of circRNA during porcine oocyte meiotic maturation have been never examined. Here, we separately identified 7,067 and 637 circRNAs in both the cumulus cell and the oocyte via deep sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. Further analysis revealed that a faction of circRNAs is differentially expressed (DE) in a developmental stage-specific manner. The host genes of DE circRNAs are markedly enriched to multiple signaling pathways associated with cumulus cell function and oocyte maturation. Additionally, most DE circRNAs harbor several miRNA targets, suggesting that these DE circRNAs potentially act as miRNA sponge. Importantly, we found that maternal circARMC4 knockdown by siRNA microinjection caused a severely impaired chromosome alignment, and significantly inhibited first polar body extrusion and early embryo development. Taken together, these results demonstrate for the first time that circRNAs are abundantly and dynamically expressed in a developmental stage-specific manner in cumulus cells and oocytes, and maternally expressed circARMC4 is essential for porcine oocyte meiotic maturation and early embryo development.