Shijun Shen, Mengting Wang, Xiaocui Li, Beiying Wang, Wei Hong, Wei Li, Ben Xu, Zhenxiang Guo, Ruichen Han, Shanru Yi, Zhiping Wu, Xiaoying He, Liping Wang, Qianshu Zhu, Guang Yang, Hong Wang, Qiaolin Deng, Jiayu Chen, Shaorong Gao, Cizhong Jiang, Rui Gao
During pregnancy, germline development is vital for maintaining the continuation of species. Recent studies have shown increased pregnancy risks in COVID-19 patients at the perinatal stage. However, the potential consequence of infection for reproductive quality in developing fetuses remains unclear. Here, we analyze the transcriptome and DNA methylome of the fetal germline following maternal severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We find that infection at early gestational age, a critical period of human primordial germ cell specification and epigenetic reprogramming, trivially affects fetal germ cell (FGC) development...
April 9, 2024: Cell reports medicine