Generation and Breeding of -Transgenic Marmoset Monkeys: Cell Chimerism and Implications for Disease Modeling.

Genetic modification of non-human primates (NHP) paves the way for realistic disease models. The common marmoset is a NHP species increasingly used in biomedical research. Despite the invention of RNA-guided nucleases, one strategy for protein overexpression in NHP is still lentiviral transduction.

Anchoring cortical granules in the cortex ensures trafficking to the plasma membrane for post-fertilization exocytosis.

Following fertilization, cortical granules exocytose ovastacin, a metalloendopeptidase that cleaves ZP2 in the zona pellucida surrounding mouse eggs to prevent additional sperm binding. Using high- and super-resolution imaging with ovastacin as a fluorescent marker, we characterize cortical granule dynamics at single granule resolution in transgenic mouse eggs. Newly-developed imaging protocols provide an unprecedented view of vesicular dynamics near the plasma membrane in mouse eggs.

Cytoplasmic cleavage of DPPA3 is required for intracellular trafficking and cleavage-stage development in mice.

Degradation of maternal proteins by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) accompanies the maternal-to-zygotic transition. DPPA3/Stella/PGC7, encoded by a maternal effect gene, is present in the nucleus and cytoplasm of zygotes and has been associated with protecting the female pronucleus from TET3-mediated demethylation. We now report that cytoplasmic DPPA3 is partially cleaved by the ubiquitin-proteasome system and an N-terminus fragment remains in the cytoplasm where it associates with early and re-cycling endosomes.