Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42566531›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

High-resolution mapping of embryonic genome activation unveils a decoupling of transcription activation from precocious H3K4me3 removal.

Jasmina Al-Mousawi, Luca Michetti, Laura Castaldi, Na Liu, Laura Villacorta, Vladimir Benes, Ana Boskovic

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Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Jasmina Al-MousawiEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit, Via E. Ramarini 32, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-6310-2264
Luca MichettiEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit, Via E. Ramarini 32, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-1614-7061
Laura CastaldiEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit, Via E. Ramarini 32, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-4343-1607
Na LiuEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit, Via E. Ramarini 32, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy.ORCID 0000-0001-9575-2763
Laura VillacortaEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genomics Core Facility, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-9509-8594
Vladimir BenesEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genomics Core Facility, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-0352-2547
Ana BoskovicEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) - Epigenetics and Neurobiology Unit, Via E. Ramarini 32, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy.ORCID 0000-0003-1258-4376

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The lack of temporal resolution in transcriptomic data during mammalian embryonic genome activation (EGA) has precluded the comprehensive understanding of the functional relationships between the various gene regulatory mechanisms governing this process. Here, we finely dissect the transcriptional dynamics of mouse EGA using precision in vitro fertilization (IVF) coupled with single-embryo RNA sequencing. Our highly temporally resolved dataset uncovers an extensive, step-wise remodeling of the embryonic messenger RNA landscape, affecting ∼30% of the total detectable transcripts over a 9-hour time frame. We capture the gradual shift from maternal to embryonic messenger RNAs, successfully identify ribosome biogenesis and translation as hallmarks of EGA, and find previously unidentified gene expression dynamics. We further uncover a set of eight histone demethylating enzymes among the earliest up-regulated EGA genes and leverage our precision-IVF to dissect the transcriptional versus developmental impact of histone H3 lysine-4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) remodeling after fertilization. Our results indicate that precocious removal of H3K4me3 from embryonic chromatin only modestly affects embryonic transcription without perturbing EGA timing, arguing against a major instructive role of precocious remodeling of maternally inherited H3K4me3 after fertilization on genome activation. High-resolution transcriptome mapping coupled with functional perturbations allows us to distinguish direct gene expression effects from general impacts on developmental timing, opening avenues for further quantitative characterization of the impact of epigenome remodeling on embryonic transcription.

Indexed as

Chromosome MappingEmbryo, MammalianGene Expression Regulation, DevelopmentalGenomeHistonesTranscriptional ActivationAnimalsChromatinEmbryonic DevelopmentFemaleFertilization in VitroMiceRNA, MessengerChromatinhistone H3 trimethyl Lys4HistonesRNA, Messenger

Identifiers

PMID42566531
PMCPMC13450217

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.