Molecular mechanisms involved in Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) egg quality: impairments at transcription and protein folding levels induce inefficient protein and energy homeostasis during early development

Background Reproductive success and normal development in all animals are dependent on egg quality and developmental competence of the produced embryo. This study employed tandem mass tags labeling based liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for egg proteomic profiling to investigate differences in the global proteome of good versus poor quality Atlantic halibut eggs at 1-cell stage post fertilization. Results A total of 115 proteins were found to be differentially abundant between good and poor quality eggs. Frequency distribution of these proteins revealed higher protein folding activity in good quality eggs in comparison to higher transcription and protein degradation activities in poor quality eggs ( p < 0.05). Poor quality halibut eggs were significantly enriched with additional proteins related to mitochondrial structure and biogenesis ( p < 0.05). The differential abundance of a selection of proteins was first confirmed at gene expression level using a transcriptomic approach followed by a targeted proteomic approach (parallel reaction monitoring based mass spectrometry) in biological samples obtained from two consecutive reproductive seasons. The findings of global proteome profiling, together with the validation of differential abundance of targeted proteins and their related genes, suggest impairments in protein and energy homeostasis which might be related to unfolded protein response and mitochondrial stress in poor quality eggs. Additional transmission electron microscopy studies were taken to assess potential differences in abundance and morphological integrity of mitochondria between good and poor quality eggs. Observations reveal poor quality eggs to contain significantly higher number of mitochondria with higher number of cristae. These mitochondria, however, are significantly smaller and have a more irregular shape than those found in high-quality eggs. Therewithal difference in mtDNA levels represented by mt-nd5 and mt-atp6 genomic DNA abundance in this study, were found to be not statistically significant ( p > 0.05) between good and bad quality eggs at both 1 hpf and 24 hpf stages. Conclusion Overall evidence from this study indicate that poor quality eggs undergo impairments at both transcription and translation level leading to endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrial deficiencies. Additional research may be required to expediate the details and the potential of these impairments occurring in different species. Nonetheless, this study will pave the way for future research and will help in acceleration of recent advances in the field of embryonic developmental competence of living organisms. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.