Full-grown oocytes are transcriptionally silent and must stably maintain the messenger
RNAs (mRNAs) needed for oocyte meiotic maturation and early embryonic development …

Oocytes form before birth and remain viable for several decades before fertilization.
Although poor oocyte quality accounts for most female fertility problems, little is known about …

In mouse, the oocyte-to-embryo transition entails converting a highly differentiated oocyte to
totipotent blastomeres. This transition is driven by degradation of maternal mRNAs, which …

In sexual reproduction of most animals, the spermatozoon provides DNA and centrioles,
together with some cytoplasm and organelles, to the oocyte that is being fertilized. Paternal …

INTRODUCTION Mitochondria are endosymbiotic organelles that have their own genome
and perform many essential functions in eukaryotic cells, including ATP synthesis via …

Mitochondria are inherited maternally in most animals, but the mechanisms of selective
paternal mitochondrial elimination (PME) are unknown. While examining fertilization in …

The germ cell lineage in Xenopus is specified by the inheritance of germ plasm, which
originates within a distinct “mitochondrial cloud”(MC) in previtellogenic oocytes. Germ plasm …

Mitochondrial large ribosomal RNA (mtlrRNA) has been identified as a cytoplasmic factor
that induces pole cell formation in embryos whose ability to form a germ line has been …

Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that change their morphology by active fusion and
fission in response to cellular signaling and differentiation [1, 2]. The in vivo role of …

Mitochondrial DNA mutations transmitted maternally within the oocyte cytoplasm often cause
life-threatening disorders. Here we explore the use of nuclear genome transfer between …