Comparison of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Fibroblasts as Donor Nuclei for Handmade Cloning in Sheep Using a Single-Cell Transcriptome

Simple Summary There have been few studies on the use of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells as donor nuclei in nuclear transplantation, despite their advantages of less reprogramming difficulty and shorter reprogramming distance. This study compared differences at the chromatin level, the level of differentially expressed genes, the level of histone modifications, and the level of DNA methylation in eight-cell embryos after using umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts as nucleus donors, using a single-cell transcriptome.Abstract Oocytes are efficient at reprogramming terminally differentiated cells to a totipotent state. Nuclear transfer techniques can exploit this property to produce cloned animals. However, the overall efficiency is low. The use of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) as donor nuclei may increase blastocyst rates, but the exact reasons for this remain unexplored. A single-cell transcriptomic approach was used to map the transcriptome profiles of eight-cell embryos that were in vitro-fertilized and handmade-cloned using umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts as nuclear donors. Differences were examined at the chromatin level, the level of differentially expressed genes, the level of histone modifications and the level of DNA methylation. This research provides critical information regarding the use of UC-MSCs as a preferred donor nucleus for nuclear transfer techniques. It also offers unique insights into the mechanism of cellular reprogramming.