1. METTL3 is essential for normal progesterone signaling during embryo implantation via m6 A-mediated translation control of progesterone receptor.
- Author
-
Zhan-Hong Zheng, Guo-Le Zhang, Run-Fu Jiang, Yu-Qi Hong, Qing-Yan Zhang, Jia-Peng He, Xin-Ru Liu, Zhen-Shan Yang, Liu Yang, Xing Jiang, Li-Jian Qu, Chen-Hui Ding, Yan-Wen Xu, Shi-Hua Yang, and Ji-Long Liu
- Subjects
EMBRYO implantation ,PROGESTERONE receptors ,GENITALIA ,HUMAN reproduction ,PROGESTERONE ,PROMOTERS - Abstract
Embryo implantation, a crucial step in human reproduction, is tightly controlled by estrogen and progesterone (P4) via estrogen receptor alpha and progesterone receptor (PGR), respectively. Here, we report that N
6 -methyladenosine (m6 A), the most abundant mRNA modification in eukaryotes, plays an essential role in embryo implantation through the maintenance of P4 signaling. Conditional deletion of methyltransferase-like 3 (Mettl3), encoding the m6 A writer METTL3, in the female reproductive tract using a Cre mouse line with Pgr promoter (Pgr-Cre) resulted in complete implantation failure due to pre-implantation embryo loss and defective uterine receptivity. Moreover, the uterus of Mettl3 null mice failed to respond to artificial decidualization. We further found that Mettl3 deletion was accompanied by a marked decrease in PGR protein expression. Mechanistically, we found that Pgr mRNA is a direct target for METTL3- mediated m6 A modification. A luciferase assay revealed that the m6 A modification in the 5′ untranslated region (5′-UTR) of Pgr mRNA enhances PGR protein translation efficiency in a YTHDF1-dependent manner. Finally, we demonstrated that METTL3 is required for human endometrial stromal cell decidualization in vitro and that the METTL3-PGR axis is conserved between mice and humans. In summary, this study provides evidence that METTL3 is essential for normal P4 signaling during embryo implantation via m6 A-mediated translation control of Pgr mRNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF