SGO1 maintains bovine meiotic and mitotic centromeric cohesions of sister chromatids and directly affects embryo development.

Shugoshin (SGO) is a critical factor that enforces cohesion from segregation of paired sister chromatids during mitosis and meiosis. It has been studied mainly in invertebrates. Knowledge of SGO(s) in a mammalian system has only been reported in the mouse and Hela cells. In this study, the functions of SGO1 in bovine oocytes during meiotic maturation, early embryonic development and somatic cell mitosis were investigated. The results showed that SGO1 was expressed from germinal vesicle (GV) to the metaphase II stage. SGO1 accumulated on condensed and scattered chromosomes from pre-metaphase I to metaphase II. The over-expression of SGO1 did not interfere with the process of homologous chromosome separation, although once separated they were unable to move to the opposing spindle poles. This often resulted in the formation of oocytes with 60 replicated chromosomes. Depletion of SGO1 in GV oocytes affected chromosomal separation resulting in abnormal chromosome alignment at a significantly higher proportion than in control oocytes. Knockdown of SGO1 expression significantly decreased the embryonic developmental rate and quality. To further confirm the function(s) of SGO1 during mitosis, bovine embryonic fibroblast cells were transfected with SGO1 siRNAs. SGO1 depletion induced the premature dissociation of chromosomal cohesion at the centromere and along the chromosome arm giving rise to abnormal appearing mitotic patterns. The results of this study infer that SGO1 is involved in the centromeric cohesion of sister chromatids and chromosomal movement towards the spindle poles. Depletion of SGO1 causes arrestment of cell division in meiosis and mitosis.