Transcriptome Fingerprint of Bovine 2-Cell Stage Blastomeres Is Directly Correlated with the Individual Developmental Competence of the Corresponding Sister

To date, gene expression profiles of bovine preimplantation embryos have only been indirectly related to developmental potential due to the invasive nature of such procedures. This study sought to find a direct correlation between transcriptome fingerprint of blastomeres of bovine 2-cell stage embryos with developmental competence of the corresponding sister blasto-meres. Isolated blastomeres were classified according to the sister blastomere’s development into three groups: two groups displayed developmental incompetency, including those blasto-meres whose corresponding sister blastomeres either stopped cleaving after separation (2CB) or were blocked after two additional cleavages before embryonic genome activation (8CB). In the third group were competent blastomeres, which were defined as those whose sister blastomeres developed to th