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The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors

Meiosis is the unique division of germ cells resulting in the recombination of the maternal and paternal genomes and the production of haploid gametes. In mammals, it begins during the fetal life in females and during puberty in males. In both cases, entering meiosis requires a timely switch from th...

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Autores principales: Farini, Donatella, De Felici, Massimo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9604137/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36293427
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012571
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author Farini, Donatella
De Felici, Massimo
author_facet Farini, Donatella
De Felici, Massimo
author_sort Farini, Donatella
collection PubMed
description Meiosis is the unique division of germ cells resulting in the recombination of the maternal and paternal genomes and the production of haploid gametes. In mammals, it begins during the fetal life in females and during puberty in males. In both cases, entering meiosis requires a timely switch from the mitotic to the meiotic cell cycle and the transition from a potential pluripotent status to meiotic differentiation. Revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying these interrelated processes represents the essence in understanding the beginning of meiosis. Meiosis facilitates diversity across individuals and acts as a fundamental driver of evolution. Major differences between sexes and among species complicate the understanding of how meiosis begins. Basic meiotic research is further hindered by a current lack of meiotic cell lines. This has been recently partly overcome with the use of primordial-germ-cell-like cells (PGCLCs) generated from pluripotent stem cells. Much of what we know about this process depends on data from model organisms, namely, the mouse; in mice, the process, however, appears to differ in many aspects from that in humans. Identifying the mechanisms and molecules controlling germ cells to enter meiosis has represented and still represents a major challenge for reproductive medicine. In fact, the proper execution of meiosis is essential for fertility, for maintaining the integrity of the genome, and for ensuring the normal development of the offspring. The main clinical consequences of meiotic defects are infertility and, probably, increased susceptibility to some types of germ-cell tumors. In the present work, we report and discuss data mainly concerning the beginning of meiosis in mammalian female germ cells, referring to such process in males only when pertinent. After a brief account of this process in mice and humans and an historical chronicle of the major hypotheses and progress in this topic, the most recent results are reviewed and discussed.
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spelling pubmed-96041372022-10-27 The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Farini, Donatella De Felici, Massimo Int J Mol Sci Review Meiosis is the unique division of germ cells resulting in the recombination of the maternal and paternal genomes and the production of haploid gametes. In mammals, it begins during the fetal life in females and during puberty in males. In both cases, entering meiosis requires a timely switch from the mitotic to the meiotic cell cycle and the transition from a potential pluripotent status to meiotic differentiation. Revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying these interrelated processes represents the essence in understanding the beginning of meiosis. Meiosis facilitates diversity across individuals and acts as a fundamental driver of evolution. Major differences between sexes and among species complicate the understanding of how meiosis begins. Basic meiotic research is further hindered by a current lack of meiotic cell lines. This has been recently partly overcome with the use of primordial-germ-cell-like cells (PGCLCs) generated from pluripotent stem cells. Much of what we know about this process depends on data from model organisms, namely, the mouse; in mice, the process, however, appears to differ in many aspects from that in humans. Identifying the mechanisms and molecules controlling germ cells to enter meiosis has represented and still represents a major challenge for reproductive medicine. In fact, the proper execution of meiosis is essential for fertility, for maintaining the integrity of the genome, and for ensuring the normal development of the offspring. The main clinical consequences of meiotic defects are infertility and, probably, increased susceptibility to some types of germ-cell tumors. In the present work, we report and discuss data mainly concerning the beginning of meiosis in mammalian female germ cells, referring to such process in males only when pertinent. After a brief account of this process in mice and humans and an historical chronicle of the major hypotheses and progress in this topic, the most recent results are reviewed and discussed. MDPI 2022-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9604137/ /pubmed/36293427 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012571 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Farini, Donatella
De Felici, Massimo
The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
title The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
title_full The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
title_fullStr The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
title_full_unstemmed The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
title_short The Beginning of Meiosis in Mammalian Female Germ Cells: A Never-Ending Story of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors
title_sort beginning of meiosis in mammalian female germ cells: a never-ending story of intrinsic and extrinsic factors
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9604137/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36293427
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012571
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