Lecture 6 - Cellular Aspects of Ovulation and Fertilization Flashcards
Meiosis in the female
- oogonium (2n)
- primary oocytes (2n) (+ polar body)
- secondary oocyte (n) (+ polar body)
meiosis between oogonium and primary oocyte
meiosis between primary and secondary oocyte
Meiosis in females starts with
oogonium
- in men - spermatogonia
- in females, have no oogonia because they have already entered meiosis 6 months before they’re born
Primary oocyte v Polar body
- the primary oocyte gets all the cytoplasm
- polar body - the bag of DNA that’s not going anywhere
Meiosis in females
- doubled the DNA (2n), put half in the oocyte and half into the polar body with no cytoplasm
- in the second round of meiosis do the same again - divide the chormosomes up so that a haploid oocyte (with 4x cytoplasm) and get rid of bag of DNA that’s not going anywhere
- this whole thing in eutherian mammals starts inutero and then stops
- might be arrested there for 60+ years and then resumes on que, which doesn’t start until menarche (in humans this will be arrested for at least 10 years, and in each cycle a different cohort ofprimordial follicles will wake up and the oocytes will resumem meiosis)
Meiosis in females
summary
- initiates in utero **and then arrested
- at/after menarche cohorts of oocytes recruited to develop each month until menopause
Meiosis in females
(picture)

Meiotic arrest in mammalian oocytes
(picture)

Secondary oocyte
- haploid
- finished meiosis
- got rid of 2 polar bodies along the way
Telophase I
- the point where we split into 1 primary oocyte and a polar body
- doesn’t produce 2 cells but a cell and a dead bunch of DNA
At first meiotic arrest
- not even diakinesis (with recombination of maternal and paternal alleles)
- the surge in LH around the middle of the cycle will wake up some - not all - oocytes so they resume meiosis
- when the resume meiosis they don’t get to finish
When resume meiosis after LH surge
- don’t get to finish
- wake up, recondense their chromosomes
- MI AI TI PII MII - then stop again after 36 hours
- don’t complete meiosis II unless they get fertilized by sperm
- TII is marked by the ejection of a second polar body
- allows to see if fertilized
- no second polar body unless the egg has been fertilized because can’t complete meiosis without sperm fusion
TII is marked by
a second polar body
- allows to see if fertilized
- no second polar body unless the egg has been fertilized because can’t complete meiosis without sperm fusion
The second meiotic arrest
- second meiotic spindle stabilized by maturation promoting factor (MPF), a complex of
- cyclin B
- cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (cdk1)
- MPF stabilized by cytostatic factor (CSF), a ocmplex of
- Emi2 (which inhibits…)
- anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C)
Second meiotic spindle ahs gotten us as far as
metaphase II
Second meiotic spindle is stabilized by
MPF - stops from going metaphase to anaphase
MPF is a complex of
- cyclin B
- cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (cdk1)
MPF stabilized by
cytostatic factor (CSF)
- stops the cell progressing
Cytostatic factor (CSF) is a complex of
- Emi2 - protein which inhibits…
- anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C)
- is stabilizing rather than attacking MPF and spindle stays frozen in time until fertilization happens
- something about sperm has to remove all of that so egg can complete meiosis
Oocyte maturation in most eutheria
- prior to ovulation, oocyte undergoes both cytoplasmic and nuclear maturation
- prior to ovulatory LH surge, primary oocyte arrested at prophase I
- LH surge stimulates resumption of meiosis; oocyte completes meiosis I, ejects first polar body and then arrests again at metaphase II
(~36h)
Prior to ovulation, oocyte is stuck in
prophase I
Prior to ovulation the oocyte undergoes
cytoplasmic and nuclear maturation
Prior to ovulatory LH surge, primary oocyte arrested at
prophase I
LH surge stimulates the resumption of meiosis
oocyte prophase I to metaphase II before it gets released
- = nuclear maturation - what’s going with chromosomes
- cytoplasmic maturation - reorganization of the organelles and antioxidants
Oocte completes meiosis I…
- ejects first polar body then arrests again at metaphase II






