MOF-mediated H4K16ac is critical for blastocyst formation in sheep by shaping promoter accessibility and transcription.

Liqin Wang, Baobao Chen, Xiaowei Chen, Haonan Chen, Lu Gan, Ying Chen, Nasser Ghanem, Mingtian Deng

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Article in Communications biology, 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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8 authors.

Liqin Wang *Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology of Xinjiang, Key Laboratory of Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Grass Feeding Livestock, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Biotechnology, Xinjiang Academy of Animal Science, Urumqi, China.

Baobao Chen *Center for Biomedical Research, Shaoxing Institute, Zhejiang University, Shaoxing, China.

Xiaowei ChenCollege of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

Haonan ChenCollege of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

Lu GanCollege of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

Ying ChenKey Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology of Xinjiang, Key Laboratory of Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Grass Feeding Livestock, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Biotechnology, Xinjiang Academy of Animal Science, Urumqi, China.

Nasser GhanemDepartment of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

Mingtian DengCollege of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China. dengmt@njau.edu.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0470-2432

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Extending culture to blastocysts in vitro enhances embryo selection efficiency and implantation success in mammals, yet the epigenetic mechanisms underlying blastocyst formation remain unclear. Here, we investigate the role of histone acetyltransferase MOF-mediated H4K16ac during sheep blastocyst formation. We find dynamic changes in H4K16ac distribution during development, with a significant increase from the 8-cell stage to blastocyst and stage-specific enrichment in promoters. Inhibition of MOF activity reduces blastocyst formation and induces widespread transcriptional dysregulation and loss of H4K16ac at 3044 genomic peaks. Genes with these peaks are down-regulated and enriched for pathways critical to blastocyst formation. Notably, the lost H4K16ac peaks show reduced chromatin openness and lower RNA polymerase II (Pol2) enrichment, demonstrating the essential role of MOF in RNA Pol2 occupancy during blastocyst formation. Our findings indicate that MOF-mediated H4K16ac is critical for ovine blastocyst formation by promoting chromatin accessibility and RNA Pol2 occupancy at promoters, thereby facilitating appropriate transcriptional programs.

Indexed as

BlastocystHistone AcetyltransferasesHistonesPromoter Regions, GeneticTranscription, GeneticAnimalsChromatinEmbryonic DevelopmentFemaleGene Expression Regulation, DevelopmentalRNA Polymerase IISheepChromatinHistone AcetyltransferasesHistonesRNA Polymerase II

Identifiers

PMID41844839

DOI10.1038/s42003-026-09868-5

PMCPMC13144390

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

Read underepoch 390

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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 Socratic graph.