I know that Erk1 and 2 phosphorylation in COCs is important during oocyte maturation, and that inhibition of MAPK is detrimental for early developing embryos in vitro. But what is the phosphorylation pattern of Erk1 and 2 during stages of cleavage up to the blastocyst stage?
Stas Shvartsman's work on EGF signaling in Drosophila embryos may be helpful.
For mouse oocytes/embryos - freshly isolated at respective stages
MII Oocyte - phospho ERK 1 and 2 are constitutively up
zygote - same as for oocyte
early 2-cell embryo - ERK1 and 2 are not constitutively phosphorylated
4-cell embryo - pERK1 is slightly up, but not ERK2
8-cell embryo - pERK1 and 2 seems to be constitutively phosphorylated; pERK2 is giving stronger bands than pERK1 but probably because a different expression pattern for the two proteins, though at this stage ERK2 could be more active (activated) than ERK1
Blastocyst – no direct information yet
This may have more to do with cell division rather than a signaling mechanism. When working with fixed tissue you are imaging a static time point, without a co marker of the cell cycle it is hard to judge if the expression is really lowerand why, it may just be the time of development. As well fluorescent microscopy is not a quantitative technique you can not state the relative level of activity based on the observed fluorescence.
Read Corson, Yamanaka and Rossant development
1: Corson LB, Yamanaka Y, Lai KM, Rossant J. Spatial and temporal patterns of ERK
signaling during mouse embryogenesis. Development. 2003 Oct;130(19):4527-37.
PubMed PMID: 12925581.
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