This volume covers the current knowledge base on the role of signaling and environmental pathways that control the normal development of germline stem cells, meiotic progression of oocytes, events of oocyte maturation and fertilization, and the birth of an embryo. Germ cells are uniquely poised to sustain life across generations through the fusion of oocyte and sperm. Because of the central importance of germ cells to life, much work has been dedicated to obtaining a clear understanding of the molecular and signaling events that control their formation and maintenance. Germ cells are set aside from somatic cells in the embryo and go through specialized meiotic cell cycles as the animal matures. These cell cycles are interspersed with long periods of arrest. In human females, meiosis I is initiated in the fetus. At birth, oocytes are arrested in meiosis I; after puberty, every month an oocyte initiates meiosis II - ovulation. Upon sperm availability these cells are fertilized, ge
nerate an embryo, and the cycle-of-life continues. During meiotic I progression and arrest, the fitness of oocytes and their progeny are likely influenced by environmental cues and signaling pathways. A lot of recent work has focused on understanding the mechanisms that regulate oocyte fitness and quality in humans and vertebrates. Much of our understanding on the events of meiosis I and germline stem cell populations comes from work in invertebrates, wherein the germline stem cells produce oocytes continuously through adult development. In both inverbrates and vertebrates nutritional and signaling pathways control the regulation of stem cells in such a manner so as to couple production of gametes with the nutritional availability. Additionally, mature oocytes arrest both in meiosis I and meiosis II, and signaling and nutritional pathways have been shown to regulate their formation, and maintenance, such that despite long periods of arrest, the oocyte quality is assured and erro
rs in chromosome segregation and varied cytoplasmic events are minimal.
1. Role of chromatin modifications in germline stem cell differentiation Pooja Flora, Maitreyi Upadhyay , Alicia McCarthy, Prashanth Rangan Prashanth Rangan prangan@albany.edu 2. Regulation of the balance between proliferation and differentiation in germline stem cells. Ramya Singh and David Hansen David Donald Hansen dhansen@ucalgary.ca 3. Control of germ line stem cell lineages by diet and physiology Kaitlyn Laws and Daniela Drummond-Barbosa Daniela Barbosa dbarbosa@jhu.edu 4. Signal-mediated regulation of meiotic prophase I during oogenesis Kenneth Trimmer and Swathi Arur Swathi Arur sarur@mdanderson.org 5. Prophase I: preparing chromosomes for segregation in the developing oocyte Rachel Harney, Benjamin Alleva, Sarit Smolikov Sarit Smolikov saritsmol@gmail.com 6. Translational control of germ cell decisions Kumari Pushpa, Amaresh Chaturbedi, Ganga Anil Kumar and Kuppuswamy Subramaniam K Subramaniam subbu@iitm.ac.in 7. Prostagladin signaling from oocyte to sperm Hieu
Dinh Hoang and Michael Miller Michael Miller mamiller@uab.edu 8. Cell fate maintenance and reprogramming during the oocyte-to-embryo transition" Christina Fassnacht and Rafal Ciosk Rafal Ciosk rafal.ciosk@fmi.ch 9. Maternal to zygotic transitions across evolution Rueyling Lin rueyling.lin@utsouthwestern.edu 10 Cell cycle regulation in oocytes Kubiak JZ and Borsuk E University of Rennes, France Jacek Kubiak. jacek.kubiak@univ-rennes1.fr 11 Oocyte activation and fertilization: crucial sperm and oocyte factors Marc Yeste, Celine Jones, Siti N. Amdani, Kevin Coward University of Oxford Marc Yeste. marc.yeste@obs-gyn.ox.ac.uk
