Upon fertilization, genetic and epigenetic information is transmitted from gametes to zygotes. The parental epigenomes are largely reset after fertilisation, yet transiently inherited epigenetic states can impact embryonic development and beyond. However, the precise function of chromatin landscapes in developing oocytes and upon inheritance into early embryos is incompletely understood. Here, we present a novel strategy to rapidly and systematically engineer precision genetic perturbations into developing oocytes.

Our approach is scalable, potentially applicable to any gene of interest, and enables integrated analysis across multiple perturbations. We exploit this strategy to generate oocyte-specific catalytic mutants of chromatin modifying enzymes and isolate the functional roles of chromatin modifications per se. By coupling this strategy with single-oocyte/embryo ‘omics’ at scale, we capture the direct and interconnected regulatory roles of key chromatin pathways during oogenesis.

Moreover, we extend this to probe the function of chromatin marks during maternal transmission into early embryos, and in doing so identify unexpected new modalities of epigenetic inheritance.

BIO

Marzia did her undergraduate degree in Biology and her Master's degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Sapienza University. She graduated in 2015 with a master thesis on long non-coding RNAs in neuronal development. Then, she worked as a Research Assistant in Richard Gregory's lab at the Boston Children's hospital, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms of RNA decay in mouse Embryonic Stem Cells. In 2016, she joined Greg Hannon's lab at the University of Cambridge for her PhD, during which she investigated the mechanisms of transposon silencing mediated by small RNAs in the fly ovary. Since September 2020, she is a postdoctoral fellow in Jamie Hackett's group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Rome, where she studies mammalian oocyte epigenetics. 

In parallel with her activity as a scientist, since 2020 she is also a scientific illustrator. She created cover arts and illustrations for leading journals and laboratories worldwide.