Reproduction Abstracts

A mature fertile oocyte is the foundation of successful embryo development. This central role in the propagation of the species renders the oocyte a focus for research in fundamental cell biology as well as in clinical research, where understanding oocyte biology provides new insights into the treatment of infertility.Making a good egg requires many critical processes including dramatic changes in the properties and volume of the cytoplasm, cell-cell int...

Introduction: The anaphase-promoting complex (APC) is an E3-ubiquitin ligase responsible for regulated destruction of substrates at specific stages of the cell cycle. Two APC co-activators, Cdc20 and Cdh1, mediate the timing and selectivity of substrates recognition. Progression through meiosis in oocytes utilises the same molecular players, although the start–stop nature of the female meiosis invokes additional levels of regulation. Recently, we reported that Cdk1 and MA...

Female meiosis involves a highly asymmetrical division to form a large secondary oocyte and a small polar body. Polo-like kinase I (Plk1) is a serine/threonine kinase which is highly conserved from yeast to human and is a potent regulator of mitosis including cytokinesis. Plk1 is known to regulate myosin via the activation of RhoA which leads to the contraction of the cleavage furrow in mitotic cells. Indirect evidence has also shown that Plk1 may regulate Cdc42 activity throu...

Cyclin A, the first cyclin ever cloned, is thought to be an essential component of the cell-cycle engine. Mammalian cells encode two A-type cyclins, a testis-specific cyclin A1 and a ubiquitously expressed cyclin A2. Cyclin A2 is an essential mitotic CDK regulatory partner and is attributed with a wide range of effects early in the G2–M transition. Although its role in mitosis has been extensively investigated, research into the role of cyclin A2 in meiosis is lacking. In...