Mammalian parthenogenesis and male reproductive success October 22, 2018 Source: Guangming Daily Mammalian parthenogenesis and orphan reproductive success will have a potentially huge impact on genetic disease research Recently, a team led by researcher Hu Baoyang, researcher of Zhou Qi and researcher Li Wei of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated to imprint the haploid embryonic stem cells, and after the complex embryo manipulation, they got the world's first double father. Sourced mice, as well as normal mothers with double traits. Related work was published in the international academic journal Cell-Stem Cell. Earth's life In the millions of years of evolution, higher animals have long evolved a more advanced form of reproduction. So why do scientists have to do the opposite and explore the possibilities of other reproductive methods in mammals? Breaking through the "shackles" of sexual reproduction in mammals In nature, simple living organisms, such as viruses and bacteria, use simple asexual reproduction; bees and ants use parthenogenesis – as long as there are queens or queens, they can ensure the reproduction of the population, some lower animals. For example, some species of lizards, frogs and fish also have parthenogenesis. Mammals have evolved a more advanced form of sexual reproduction. In order to ensure that this mode of reproduction is invincible in the competition, nature also adds an irreplaceable and irreversible "lock" to the sperm and eggs - the imprinted gene. One of the main accomplishers of parthenogenesis and orphan reproduction in mammals, Wang Leyun, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced the gene editing technique to re-modify the imprint of mouse germ cell-derived haploid embryonic stem cells. The gene, after a series of complicated operations, finally obtained the offspring of two female mice as a parent (parthenogenetic) and two male mice as a parent (male reproduction). "The successful parthenogenesis experiment has been reported before, but the mice born at that time died only after a few days of survival. This time we found a very important sperm imprinting gene Rasgrf1, which will be in parthenogenetic haploid embryonic stem cells. The gene was knocked out, and we obtained a healthy mouse with a parthenogenetic individual that is basically the same as a normal individual.†Wang Leyun said that scientists will continue to pay attention to the health status of the offspring of parthenogenetic mice for continuous observation and research. "And the male reproductive is the first time successfully born, and achieved short-term survival." Wang Leyun said that orphan reproduction is a more difficult way to achieve reproduction, "because the relevant research is not much." According to Wang Leyun, the production of solitary male mice requires the deletion of 7 imprinted segments in solitary male haploid embryonic stem cells, far more than the number of knockouts required for the birth of parthenogenetic mice. "As far as we know, this is the largest number of knockouts performed in mice at one time. On this basis, it will be more difficult to further improve the health of the orphan mice, but we will continue to study. ." Uncovering the mysteries of reproduction and exploring ways to treat genetic diseases Sexual reproduction is a more advanced form of reproduction in evolution. Wang Leyun introduced that relatively lower animals (such as oviparous fish or reptiles), mammals have more precious reproductive resources, not only consume a lot of resources during the breeding process, but also have a long time for pregnancy, a small number of offspring, and the mother even faces during childbirth. The risk of death. Therefore, each offspring needs to undergo a more rigorous selection. Sexual reproduction not only ensures the stability of the genome, but also promotes the evolution of species through genetic recombination. Wang Leyun said: "If this process is over-reliant on same-sex reproduction (such as parthenogenesis), it will cause loss of genetic diversity of the population, loss of favorable mutations, and ultimately lead to species degradation and even extinction." Since sexual reproduction is more advanced, why should scientists study parthenogenesis or orphan reproduction? Zhou Qi, director of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this is an important basic research. He said: "Exploring the unknown is the essence of science. Scientific research is the process of exploring the unknown. It is the process of increasing human understanding of itself and the universe. Exploring the mystery of reproduction helps us understand how we have evolved to this day, we are The pros and cons of reproductive methods and how to further overcome the difficulties we face in the future. This is the main significance of our research." From an application perspective, this will have a potentially huge impact on human health research, especially on genetic diseases. Zhou Qi said that previous studies have found that these imprinted genes have a high correlation with some genetic diseases. Wang Leyun explained: "The success of mammalian homosexual reproduction provides us with a new means of animal breeding that can be used to breed pure animals with high scientific and medical value. We are in parthenogenetic and orphan mice. The genetic manipulation of different imprinted segments can be seen as a 'repair' that provides valuable early exploration for future clinical treatment of these diseases." 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