Molecular phenotype of the human oocyte by PCR-SAGE

Consecutive application of PCR and serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE ) was used to generate a catalog of similar to 50,000 SAGEtags from nine hu man oocytes, Matches for known genes were identified using the National Ins titutes of Health SAGEtag database, This database links directly to the Uni Gene database, providing rapid discrimination between SAGEtags that match k nown genes and expressed sequence tags and those that currently have no mat ch. Matches in the oocyte SAGE catalog were found for surface receptors, se cond-messenger systems, and cytoskeletal, apoptotic, and secreted proteins. Many of these proteins were not previously known to be expressed in mammal ian oocytes, The relative abundances of transcripts for cytoskeletal protei ns and proteins known to be in oocytes are consistent with their documented expression, suggesting an absence of representational distortion by the PC R step. The expression profile of the human oocyte may help identify factor s that reprogram somatic cell nuclei to totipotency. (C) 2000 Academic Pres s.