Fig. 10: Schematic representation of subcellular heterogeneities in the preimplantation mouse embryo.

a, b Late 16-cell stage embryos establish differentially equipped apical and basal domains to compartmentalise translation activities in outer blastomeres. c During asymmetric cell divisions from 16- to 32-cell stage, translation components localised apically are inherited by outer daughter cells, whereas the basal rRNA-enriched RNA pool is inherited by inner daughter cells. d The inheritance of such subcellular RNA heterogeneities lead to a higher translation capacity in outer cells which may promote trophectoderm differentiation. Less translation capacity is required by pluripotent inner cells, while maintaining a high rRNA content.