Germinal vesicle

Sunkara, P. S., Wright, D. A., and Rao, P. N. (1979). Mitotic factors from mammalian cells induce germinal vesicle breakdown and chromosome condensation in amphibian oocytes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76 2799-2802. 

Figure 1. Expression of c-mos in mouse oocytes, c-mos is transcribed during oocyte growth and transcripts with short poly(A) tails are accumulated in fully-grown germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes. These transcripts are polyadenylated and translated following the resumption of meiosis and then degraded following fertilization and cleavage to the two-cell stage.

Fong, P.P., Kyozuka, K., Abdelghani, H., Hardege, J.D. and Ram, J.L. (1994) In vivo and in vitro induction of germinal vesicle breakdown in a freshwater bivalve, the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas). J. Exp. Zool., 269, 467 174. 

Finally, profilins have been reported as residents of the nucleus. Immunofluorescence revealed nuclear profilin I in fibroblasts and epithehal cells (Mayboroda et al. 1997 Skare et al. 2003) and in bovine oocyte germinal vesicles and early embryos (Rawe et al. 2006). Nuclear profilin has also been described in several higher plants (see Hussey et al. 2006 for original references). Additionally, the existence of nuclear profilin-actin complexes can be deduced from studies on HeLa cells and Xenopus oocytes (Striven et al. 2003). In a recent study with GFP-profilin transfected cells and polyclonal anti-serum, profilin II has been shown to accumulate in the nucleus of hippocampal neurons. This concentration was de-... 

Pierce the oocyte with a sharpened needle and extrude the contents, picking up the germinal vesicle (GV) and cleaning it by sucking it up and down in a narrow-bore pipet. 

Cytoplasmic extracts have been made from immature oocytes, either unactivated or artificially activated (Longo et aL, 1994). Ovaries are dissected from ripe females and incubated in seawater to release germinal vesicle (GV)-stage oocytes. Oocytes are washed three times in seawater by suspension and spinning in a hand centrifuge. 

Lamins are a group of intermediate filament proteins that polymerize to form a fibrous lamina subjacent to the nuclear envelope. Somatic mammalian cells contain A-type lamins of 70 kDa, immunologically related C-type lamins ( 66 kDa), as well B-type lamins (Gerace et al. 1978). In the sea urchin, a single 70-kDa B-type lamin has been identified and cloned (Holy etai, 1995), whereas several lamin epitope-containing molecules have been reported in sperm and in vitro pronuclei (Collas et al., 1995 see below). In the clam, a unique 67-kDa lamin has been identified in germinal vesicles (Dessev and Goldman, 1988) and hepatopancreas nuclei (Maul et at., 1987). 

Lohka, M. J., and Masui, Y. (1983a). The germinal vesicle material required for sperm pronuclear formation is located in the soluble fraction of egg cytoplasm. Exp. Cell Res. 148,481-491. 

Eckberg WR. 1997. MAP and cdc2 kinase activities at germinal vesicle breakdown in Chaetopterus. Dev Biol 191(2) 182-190. 

Gavin AC, Cavadore JC, Schorderet-Slatkine S. 1994. Histone HI kinase activity, germinal vesicle breakdown and M phase entry in mouse oocytes. J CeU Sd 107 ( Pt 1) 275-283. 

McGinnis LK, Hong X, Christenson LK, Kinsey WH. 2011b. Fer tyrosine kinase is required for germinal vesicle breakdown and meiosis-I in mouse oocytes. Mol Reprod Dev 78(l) 33-47. 

Mood K, Fiiesel R, Daar lO. 2002. SNT1/FRS2 mediates germinal vesicle breakdown induced by an activated FGF receptorl in Xenopus oocytes. J Biol Chem 277(36) 33196-33204. 

Sakamoto I, Takahara K, Yamashita M, Iwao Y. 1998. Changes in cyclin B during oocyte maturation and early embryonic cell cycle in the newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster requirement of germinal vesicle for MPF activation. Dev Biol 195(l) 60-69. 

Tosca L, Uzbekova S, Chabrolle C, Dupont J. 2007. Possible role of 5 AMP-activated protein kinase in the metformin-mediated arrest of bovine oocytes at the germinal vesicle stage during in vitro maturation. Biol Reprod 77(3) 452-465. 

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