染色质开放性和染色质三维高级结构在基因表达和调控中发挥着非常重要的作用,广泛参与分化、发育、肿瘤发生等细胞生理过程,是表观遗传研究的热点领域之一。动物胚胎发育起始于终端分化的卵子受精形成全能性的受精卵。在精卵结合的过程中,染色质开放性和染色质三维高级结构发生了剧烈的变化,经历继承、重编程、重新建立的过程,并指导调控受精卵分化发育最终成为多细胞、多器官组织的新生命个体。本文介绍了近年来研究染色质开放性和染色质三维高级结构的实验分析技术手段,染色质结构在动物早期胚胎发育过程中的变化规律及其在早期胚胎发育中的作用,染色质结构与其他表观遗传信息(甲基化、组蛋白修饰等)关系方面的重要研究进展和存在的科学问题,以期为表观遗传调控早期胚胎发育的研究提供参考。

The chromatin accessibility and 3D high-order structure play an important role in gene expression and regulation, and are involved in numerous cellular processes such as differentiation, development and tumorigenesis. It is currently one of the hottest research fields in epigenetics. The animal embryonic development initiates from the terminally differentiated mature eggs, which are fertilized by sperms to establish totipotent zygotes. During this complex process, the epigenome encompassing chromatin accessibility and high-order structures changes dramatically, undergoes inheritance, reprogramming and re-establishment, so that the zygote could eventually develop into a new multicellular and multi-tissue organism. In this review, we summarize the research methods and technology for chromatin accessibility and 3D high-order structures, the dynamics of chromatin structures during the animal embryonic development and how to regulate early embryogenesis, the relationship between chromatin structure and other epigenetic information such as methylation and histone modification. We hope that this review may shed light on the research of epigenome regulating embryo development.