Restarting Life: Fertilization and the Transition from Meiosis to Mitosis

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol

Specialties Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2013 Aug 15

PMID 23942453

Citations 120

Authors

Dean Clift

Melina Schuh

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Fertilization triggers a complex cellular programme that transforms two highly specialized meiotic germ cells, the oocyte and the sperm, into a totipotent mitotic embryo. Linkages between sister chromatids are remodelled to support the switch from reductional meiotic to equational mitotic divisions; the centrosome, which is absent from the egg, is reintroduced; cell division shifts from being extremely asymmetric to symmetric; genomic imprinting is selectively erased and re-established; and protein expression shifts from translational control to transcriptional control. Recent work has started to reveal how this remarkable transition from meiosis to mitosis is achieved.

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