A Y-chromosomal effect on blastocyst cell number in mice

Karyotopic and cell number analysis of 3.5 day post coitum preimplantation mouse embryos was used to determine whether XY embryos had more cells than XX embryos at the late morula/early blastocyst stage. This proved to be the case for the CD1 strain (for which it had previously been shown that XY embryos form a blastocoel earlier than XX embryos) and for the MF1 strain. However, this increased cell number was not seen in MF1 embryos carrying an RIII strain Y in place of the MF1 Y. Furthermore, interstrain crosses between CD1 and the MF1,YRIII strain showed that the cell number increase segregated with the CD1 Y but not with the RIII Y. It is concluded that the CD1 and MF1 Y chromosomes carry a factor that accelerates the rate of preimplantation development.