Delayed fertilization leads to the ageing of post-ovulatory oocytes and reduces the developmental competence of arising embryos. Little information is available about the molecular processes during fish oocyte ageing. The current study investigated the functional consequences of oocyte ageing in grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella embryos. In addition, the dynamics of selected post-transcriptionally modified histones (acetylation of H3K9, H3K14, H4K5, H4K8, H4K12, and H4K16) were analyzed during oocyte ageing. Ovulated oocytes were aged in vitro for 4 h in the laboratory incubator at 20 °C and studied for selected post-translational modification of histones. In addition, histone acetyltransferase activity was investigated as an important regulator of histone acetylation modification. The results indicated a significant decrease in oocyte fertilizing ability through 1 h of post-ovulatory ageing, and a complete loss of egg fertilizing abilities was detected at 4-h aged oocytes. Furthermore, post-ovulatory oocyte ageing for 1 and 4 h led to decreased levels of H4K12 acetylation. The activity of histone acetyltransferases increased significantly after ageing of the oocytes for 30 h in vitro. This modification may partly contribute to explaining the failures of egg viability and embryo development in the offspring from the aged oocytes. The results are the first to report histone modifications as a crucial epigenetic regulator during oocyte ageing in fish and might also benefit other vertebrates.

CBIO Aarhus University Centre for Circular Bioeconomy 8830 Tjele Denmark

CiFood Centre of Innovative Food Research Aarhus University 8200 Aarhus Denmark

Department of Food Science Aarhus University Agro Food Park 48 8200 Aarhus Denmark

South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses Research Institute of Fish Culture and Hydrobiology Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice 389 25 Vodňany České Budějovice Czech Republic

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Aging oocytes: exploring apoptosis and its impact on embryonic development in common carp (Cyprinus carpio)