Nuclear translocation of phospholipase C-zeta, an egg-activating factor, during early embryonic development

Phospholipase C-zeta (PLC{zeta}), a strong candidate of the egg-activating sperm factor, causes intracellular Ca{sup 2+} oscillations and egg activation, and is subsequently accumulated into the pronucleus (PN), when expressed in mouse eggs by injection of RNA encoding PLC{zeta}. Changes in the localization of expressed PLC{zeta} were investigated by tagging with a fluorescent protein. PLC{zeta} began to translocate into the PN formed at 5-6 h after RNA injection and increased there. Observation in the same embryo revealed that PLC{zeta} in the PN dispersed to the cytoplasm upon nuclear envelope breakdown and translocated again into the nucleus after cleavage. The dynamics was found in the second mitosis as well. When RNA was injected into fertilization-originated 1-cell embryos or blastomere(s) of 2-8-cell embryos, the nuclear localization of expressed PLC{zeta} was recognized in every embryo up to blastocyst. Thus, PLC{zeta} exhibited alternative cytoplasm/nucleus localization during development. This supports the view that the sperm factor could control cell cycle-dependent generation of Ca{sup 2+} oscillations in early embryogenesis.