There has been recent renewed interest in studying human early embryonic development.
The advent of improved culture conditions to maintain blastocysts in vitro for an extended …

Oxidative stress is involved in the aetiology of defective embryo development. Reactive
oxygen species (ROS) may originate from embryo metabolism and/or embryo surroundings …

Transcriptional control requires epigenetic changes directed by mitochondrial tricarboxylic
acid (TCA) cycle metabolites. In the mouse embryo, global epigenetic changes occur during …

After fertilization, to initiate development, gametes are reprogramed to become totipotent.
Approximately half of the mammalian genome consists of repetitive elements, including …

BACKGROUND Spermatozoa are highly differentiated, transcriptionally inert cells
characterized by a compact nucleus with minimal cytoplasm. Nevertheless they contain a …

In mammals, the sperm deliver mRNA of unknown function into the oocytes during
fertilization. The role of sperm microRNAs (miRNAs) in preimplantation development is …

The Third Edition of Chromatin: Structure and Function brings the reader up-to-date with the
remarkable progress in chromatin research over the past three years. It has been …

Maternal effect genes produce mRNA or proteins that accumulate in the egg during
oogenesis. We show here that Mater, a mouse oocyte protein dependent on the maternal …

The H19 gene is imprinted with preferential expression from the maternal allele. The
putative imprinting control region for this locus is hypermethylated on the repressed paternal …

Prior to activation of the embryonic genome, the initiating events of mammalian development
are under maternal control and include fertilization, the block to polyspermy and processing …