Fig. 3.

Maternal (a) and paternal (b–c) HSFs impact the zygotic activity of Hsp70.1 promoter. a–b Luciferase activity was measured on single or groups of five embryos. The values are presented as normalized to the mean luciferase activity measured in Hsf1^+/+. a Embryos were produced as presented by the scheme (left) using females from different genotypes (listed as x-axis legends on the graph) and homozygous transgenic WT males. Graph (right) shows that Hsf1^+/− and Hsf1^−/−females produced embryos exhibiting reduced transgenic Hsp70.1 activity. b Embryos generated with HSF1- or HSF2-deficient spermatozoa as shown on the scheme (left) had a lower level of luciferase activity in comparison to WT ones. The x-axis legends indicate the genotype of the fathers. c The amount of Hsp70.1 transcripts produced by embryos (30 h post-hCG) obtained from WT, Hsf1^−/− or Hsf2^−/− fathers was determined by RT-qPCR. Relative quantities of mRNA were normalized against the quantity of the ribosomal S16 transcripts and the relative expression was compared with the Hsf1^+/+ sample which was arbitrarily given the value 1. The x-axis legends indicate the genotype of the fathers. **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001