Surfeit locus protein 4 modulates endoplasmic reticulum function and maintains oocyte quality

ABSTRACT

Surfeit locus protein 4 is a cargo receptor mediating cargo transport from the endoplasmic reticulum lumen to the Golgi apparatus. Loss of Surf4 gene led to embryonic lethality in mice. However, the role of Surf4 during oocyte development remains unknown. In this study, we generated the mouse model with oocyte-specific knockout of Surf4 gene. We found that adult mice with deletion of Surf4 showed normal folliculogenesis, ovulation and fertility. However, loss of Surf4 slightly impaired oocyte quality, thus led to partial oocyte meiotic arrest and reduced ratio of blastocyst formation. Consistent with this, the distribution of endoplasmic reticulum was disturbed in Surf4-deficient oocytes in mice. These results demonstrated that although Surf4 is dispensable for female mouse fertility, Surf4 modulates endoplasmic reticulum arrangement and participates in regulation of developmental competence of oocytes.

KEYWORDS:

• Surf4
• endoplasmic reticulum
• folliculogenesis
• Oocyte quality
• fertility

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Bing-xin Ma (Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology) for helpful discussion.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

YY and LQZ conceived the idea and designed the experiment. YL performed the experiments. YL wrote the manuscript and YY revised the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics statement

Animal procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Mice were housed in the specific pathogen-free facility of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. All experiments with mice were conducted ethically according to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animal guidelines.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSFC 32000488, 32170820, 31771661, 82301867].