TY - JOUR T1 - Filopodia-like protrusions of adjacent somatic cells shape the developmental potential of oocytes JF - Life Science Alliance JO - Life Sci. Alliance DO - 10.26508/lsa.202301963 VL - 6 IS - 6 SP - e202301963 AU - Flora Crozet AU - Gaëlle Letort AU - Rose Bulteau AU - Christelle Da Silva AU - Adrien Eichmuller AU - Anna Francesca Tortorelli AU - Joséphine Blévinal AU - Morgane Belle AU - Julien Dumont AU - Tristan Piolot AU - Aurélien Dauphin AU - Fanny Coulpier AU - Alain Chédotal AU - Jean-Léon Maître AU - Marie-Hélène Verlhac AU - Hugh J Clarke AU - Marie-Emilie Terret Y1 - 2023/06/01 UR - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/6/6/e202301963.abstract N2 - The oocyte must grow and mature before fertilization, thanks to a close dialogue with the somatic cells that surround it. Part of this communication is through filopodia-like protrusions, called transzonal projections (TZPs), sent by the somatic cells to the oocyte membrane. To investigate the contribution of TZPs to oocyte quality, we impaired their structure by generating a full knockout mouse of the TZP structural component myosin-X (MYO10). Using spinning disk and super-resolution microscopy combined with a machine-learning approach to phenotype oocyte morphology, we show that the lack of Myo10 decreases TZP density during oocyte growth. Reduction in TZPs does not prevent oocyte growth but impairs oocyte-matrix integrity. Importantly, we reveal by transcriptomic analysis that gene expression is altered in TZP-deprived oocytes and that oocyte maturation and subsequent early embryonic development are partially affected, effectively reducing mouse fertility. We propose that TZPs play a role in the structural integrity of the germline–somatic complex, which is essential for regulating gene expression in the oocyte and thus its developmental potential. ER -