BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Embryonic Development
This article is part of the Research TopicMetabolic Pathways in Early Embryogenesis: Mechanisms and ImplicationsView all 5 articles
SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF MTOR PATHWAY ACTIVITY DURING BOVINE EMBRYO DEVELOPMENT
Provisionally accepted
Francieli Perroni Berling1Viviane Beatriz de Godoi Bacaro1Ricardo Itiki de Paschoal1
Marcella Pecora Milazzotto2
Marcelo Demarchi Goissis1*- 1University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- 2Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil
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The mTOR pathway regulates cell proliferation, growth, survival, and metabolism by integrating nutritional and growth factor signaling. In embryos, its activity is influenced by the availability of nutrients in the culture medium, and it can affect the first cellular differentiation event, driving trophectoderm (TE) formation in mice. We hypothesized that mTOR activity is increased in cells poised to become TE and in differentiated TE cells of early bovine embryos. To test this, we assessed mTOR pathway activity through immunofluorescence detection of phospho-S6 (pS6) using confocal microscopy. In morulae, pS6 activity was primarily observed in the outer cells and in early blastocysts, in the TE, while it disappeared in late blastocysts, suggesting a specific pattern for mTOR localization and activity during early embryonic development in bovine.
Keywords: differentiation, Inner cell mass, Nuclear mTOR, phospho-S6, Trophectoderm
Received: 12 Dec 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Berling, Bacaro, de Paschoal, Milazzotto and Goissis. 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: Marcelo Demarchi Goissis
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