The oocyte is the major determinant of embryo developmental competence in all mammalian species. Although fundamental advances have been generated field reproductive medicine and assisted technologies past three decades, researchers clinicians are still trying to elucidate molecular factors pathways, which could be pivotal for oocyte’s competence. cell-to-cell cell-to-matrix communications cruc...

Abstract For decades we have looked for marker of embryo competence. And while come a long way in terms identifying markers related to embryonic competence, lot research is still focused on finding this simple measurable indicator predicting positive outcome the individual treatment. Many potential indicators been evaluated. This includes cumulus oocyte complex, zona pellucida, perivitelline sp...

Background: α-Lipoic acid (LA) is a cofactor in mitochondrial multienzyme complexes and is well-known for its antioxidant properties in both of in vivo and in vitro condition. Materials and Methods: Preantral follicles were isolated from 2 weeks old NMRI mice ovaries. LA at concentrations of 0 and 100 μM was supplemented to culture media (α-MEM medium supplemented with 5% FBS, 100 mlU/ml FSH, 1...

Background: Since the sheep ‘Dolly’ was successfully cloned by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the inefficiency of SCNT cloning and abnormality of cloned animals have been a focus of considerable controversy. Oocyte quality has been shown to contribute to poor somatic cloning and cell reprogramming efficiency with many factors affecting oocyte quality and developmental potential. It has b...

Background It has long been recognised that social competence is an important aspect for human development, particularly for early childhood development, and it has been considered as a construct in developmental theory (Waters and Sroufe 1983). Different views have been put forward on the definition of social competence over the past two decades. These different perspectives range from the inn...

The acquisition of competence is a key mechanism for refining global signals to distinct spatial and temporal responses. The molecular basis of competence, however, remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the beta FTZ-F1 orphan nuclear receptor functions as a competence factor for stage-specific responses to the steroid hormone ecdysone during Drosophila metamorphosis. beta FTZ-F1 mutants...

Natural competence for transformation is a developmental program that allows certain bacteria to take up free extracellular DNA from the environment and integrate this DNA into their genome. Thereby, natural transformation acts as mode of horizontal gene transfer and impacts bacterial evolution. The number of genes induced upon competence induction varies significantly between organisms. Howeve...