Major waves of H2A.Z incorporation during mouse oogenesis and preimplantation embryo development

Abstract Epigenomes of mammalian oocytes and embryos undergo major transitions essential for successful development. Here, we provide genome-wide maps of histone variant H2A.Z during twelve stages of mouse oogenesis and preimplantation embryo development and relate it to histone marks and genomic features. This revealed that major waves of H2A.Z incorporation occur early in growing oocytes, forming distinct patterns of maternal, embryonic, and persistent H2A.Z enrichment. Late maternal enrichment is inherited by the zygote and precedes reduced formation of lamina associated domains and early replication in the maternal genome of 2-cell embryos. Persistent H2A.Z enrichment is strongly associated with CpG islands and H3K4me3 near transcription start sites of active genes, but thousands of maternal and embryonic H2A.Z incorporation sites exist elsewhere, frequently at transposable elements. The persisting H2A.Z enrichments across related developmental stages enable preservation of epigenetic information despite major concurrent changes in H3K4me3, H3K27me3, and DNA methylation. Altogether, this advances our understanding of how histone variants contribute to epigenetic reprogramming during mammalian oogenesis and early development.