Overexpression of placenta-specific noncanonical imprinted genes causes placental enlargement in intersubspecific hybrid mice†.

Placental enlargement in somatic cell nuclear transfer-derived mice is attributed to biallelic expression of noncanonical (H3K27me3-dependent) imprinted genes owing to loss of imprinting (LOI). Here, we investigated whether a similar mechanism underlies placental enlargement in intersubspecific hybrids between BDF1 (Mus musculus domesticus) and HMI (M. m. castaneus) mice. Quantitative and allelic expression analyses revealed gene-specific LOI in (BDF1 × HMI)F1 placentas: Jade1 (Phf17) and Slc38a4 showed LOI in all placentas regardless of expression levels, whereas Gab1 and Sfmbt2 exhibited LOI only when expression levels were elevated. Notably, Jade1 and Slc38a4 also showed biallelic expression at lower levels in normal-sized (BDF1 × JF1 [M. m. molossinus])F1 placentas. Maternal knockout of Jade1, Slc38a4, Sfmbt2, or the Sfmbt2 miRNA cluster restored monoallelic expression and significantly reduced the weight of (BDF1 × HMI)F1 placentas, indicating that these genes were collectively responsible for placental enlargement in intersubspecific hybrid placentas. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that LOI of noncanonical imprinted genes occurred after implantation. These findings suggest that placental enlargement in (BDF1 × HMI)F1 hybrids is driven by overexpression of multiple noncanonical imprinted genes, resulting from LOI after implantation and additional hybrid-specific, yet unidentified, upregulation mechanisms.