Comparative expression analysis of Oct-4 gene in 8-16 cell stage of parthenogenetic and IVF derived embryos in caprine

This study was carried out to compare the expression of embryonic developmental related Oct4 gene in 8-16 cell stage of parthenogenetic embryos of goat with that of IVF derived embryos. For the study, oocytes were activated using 7% ethanol and developed parthenogenetically haploid embryos of 8-16 cell stage. The relative expression of Oct4 gene was analyzed in parthenogenetically derived embryos by real time PCR. The result of present study showed that the relative expression of Oct-4 gene showed a 0.635 fold down regulation in haploid parthenogenetic embryo in comparison to IVF derived embryos. The study suggests that the amount of Oct4 gene present in embryos must be accurately controlled to allow proper parthenogenetic embryo development.