Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

Sec. Molecular and Cellular Reproduction

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1635110

MRE11 orchestrates porcine oocyte meiotic progression by modulating the spindle assembly checkpoint

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Department of Reproductive Medicine, General Hospital of WanBei Coal Group, SuZhou, 234000, China, Wanbei Coal and Power Group General Hospital, Suzhou, Anhui Province, China
  • 2Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Local Livestock and Poultry Genetical Resource Conservation and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Mre11 is a multisubunit nuclease, and its dysfunction often leads to DNA damage sensitivity, genomic instability, telomere shortening, and aberrant meiosis. However, its functional roles in porcine oocyte meiosis have not yet been fully elucidated. In the present study, we applied the Mre11-specific inhibitor mirin in porcine oocytes, validating the roles of Mre11 during mammalian oocyte maturation. We demonstrated that inhibition of Mre11 activity led to the failure of first polar body extrusion, accompanied by the presence of BubR1 at kinetochores. In addition, spindle/chromosome structure was disrupted in Mre11-inhibited oocytes due to the weakened microtubule stability, which is a major cause resulting in the activation of SAC. Additionally, the spindle was unable to migrate to the oocyte cortex, leading to defects in polar body formation. This issue may be attributed to reduced cytoplasmic actin polymerization resulting from MRE11 depletion in porcine oocytes. Last, we found that the level DNA damage as assessed by γH2A.X staining was considerably elevated when MRE11 was inhibited, suggesting that DNA damage might be another critical factor leading to the meiotic failure of oocytes. Collectively, our data demonstrate that Mre11 participates in the porcine oocyte meiotic progression through ensuring normal spindle assembly and SAC activity.

Keywords: MRE11, Oocytes development, SAC, Spindle, Actin

Received: 26 May 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yang, Yongteng, Fang, Cao, Li, Cao, Xue and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Mianqun Zhang, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Local Livestock and Poultry Genetical Resource Conservation and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.