Fig. 4

Dynamic regulation of genes associated with epigenetic regulatory processes, which especially remodel chromatin status. A Heatmap showing expression levels of histone-deacetylation-related genes at E12, E16, and hatch. Among these genes, DEGs (HDAC2, RCOR3, MTA3, and MIER1) are extracted, and expression levels at E12, E16, and hatch are shown using UMAP and violin plots. The mRNA expression levels (compared with GAPDH levels), based on quantitative RT-PCR analysis, are shown for germ cells at E12, E16, and hatch. B Heatmap illustrating expression of DNA-methylation-related genes at E12, E16, and hatch. Among these genes, DEGs (DNMT3B and HELLS) are extracted, and expression levels at E12, E16, and hatch are shown by using UMAP and violin plots. The mRNA expression levels (compared with GAPDH levels) based on quantitative RT-PCR analysis are shown for germ cells at E12, E16, and hatch. Quantitative RT-PCR data are expressed as the mean ± standard error of mean (n = 3). Significant differences are determined by one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001, and **** P < 0.0001. ns = non-significant