Expression levels and poly(A) content of ME genes in postovulatory-aged oocytes.

<p>The normalized fold change (mean ± SEM) of postovulatory-aged oocytes compared to control oocytes (dotted line) of total transcript (black bars) and polyadenylated transcript (white bars) is shown. In vivo-grown oocytes were aged for 12 h (A) and 24 h (B). After 12 h of postovulatory aging, the stronger reduction of polyadenylated transcript in comparison to total transcript levels indicates a reduced poly(A) tail length for <i>Nlrp5</i>. After 24 h, postovulatory aging results in a considerable decline of overall transcript amount and a decline in poly(A) content for most of the genes investigated. This decline in poly(A) content was significant for <i>Nlpr5</i> and showed a trend for <i>Dnmt1</i>. C) Poly(A) content of in vitro-grown oocytes tended to decline for eight of the ten genes investigated already after 12 h of postovulatory aging, (t: <i>P</i><0.10, * <i>P</i><0.05, ** <i>P</i><0.01).