Relative expression levels of the eight imprinted genes in porcine MII oocytes and in diploid normal and uniparental embryos from the two-cell to the blastocyst stage.

<p>The relative levels of mRNA were quantified using qRT-PCR and then calculated with the 2^{−ΔΔ Ct} method <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0022216#pone.0022216-Livak1" target="_blank">[23]</a>. Five replicate samples were examined for each class. The values from transcripts of the imprinted genes in PG and AG blastocysts, after normalization relative to the <i>β ACTIN</i> (internal control) gene, were compared to those of IVF counterparts which were taken as a standard (1). This data is presented as mean ± SEM. The relative abundance of eight imprinted genes among the different types of embryos at each stage are shown; A; the 2-cell (n = 25), B; the 4-cell (n = 25), C; the 8∼16-cell (n = 15), D; the morula (n = 10), and E; the blastocyst stage (n = 5) of porcine embryos.