Fig. 1

Structure of the Zrsr1/Commd1 locus and analysis of Commd1 expression and Zrsr1-DMR methylation in the oocyte. a Zrsr1, an approximately 2.8-kb intronless gene, and the first two exons of Commd1 are represented by gray and white boxes, respectively. Distances from the Zrsr1 gene to Commd1 exon 1 and exon 2 are indicated above the gene with double-headed arrows. The schematic is not drawn to scale. Arrows above (maternal allele) and below (paternal allele) exon 1 and the Zrsr1 gene represent the direction of transcription and the allelic expression status of the genes. The open and closed circles at the Zrsr1 promoter indicate unmethylation and methylation, respectively. A schematic of the targeting vector is shown under the gene. The closed and hatched boxes represent the truncation cassette and the neo-selection marker gene, respectively. These elements are flanked by the 5.2 kb left arm containing exon 1 and the 5.1 kb right arm, which contains part of intron 1. The truncation cassette is flanked by loxP sites, represented by gray arrowheads enclosed in open rectangles. Expected transcription patterns of the WT and PA alleles are shown above the gene schematic with thick lines and dotted lines corresponding to exons and introns, respectively. b RT-PCR analysis of Commd1 expression in growing oocytes prepared from B6 female neonates at Day 5 (D5), Day 10 (D10), and Day 15 (D15) postpartum, and fully grown MII oocytes (MII) from B6 adult females. PC: positive control for RT-PCR using adult brain cDNA. MW: molecular weight marker. c Analysis of methylation at Zrsr1-DMR in growing and fully grown oocytes used in b. The 223-bp region in the DMR containing 14 CpGs was analyzed via bisulfite sequencing. Each row represents a dataset from one clone, and each circle represents one CpG site. Closed and open circles depict methylated and unmethylated CpGs, respectively