Mammalian oocyte meiotic maturation is the precondition of early embryo development. Lots of microtubules (MT)-associated proteins participate in oocyte maturation process. Cytoskeleton-associated protein 5 (CKAP5) is a member of the XMAP215 family that regulates microtubule dynamics during mitosis. However, its role in meiosis has not been fully studied. Here, we investigated the function of C...

The glucose metabolism and embryonic development of rat embryos during organogenesis was studied using embryo culture. Glucose uptake and embryonic growth and differentiation of 10.5-day explants (embryos + membranes) were limited by the decreasing glucose concentration, but not the increasing concentration of metabolites, in the culture media during the second 24 h of a 48 h culture. No such l...

Epidermal cells in the root of Arabidopsis seedling differentiate either as hair or non-hair cells, while in the hypocotyl they become either stomatal or elongated cells. WEREWOLF (WER) and GLABRA2 (GL2) are positive regulators of non-hair and elongated cell development. CAPRICE (CPC) is a positive regulator of hair cell development in the root. We show that WER, GL2 and CPC are expressed and a...

The aim of this study was to identify the in vitro development stage at which the culture of a single or low number (n = 5 or 10) of oocytes/embryos could impair development in comparison with culture in group (n = 50). In the Experiment 1, it was confirmed that single in vitro embryo production yielded lower cleavage and blastocyst rates than in group (49.4 vs. 83.0%; 0% vs. 37.8%, respectivel...

Several characteristics of oviductal cells, cultured under either polarizing or nonpolarizing conditions, were studied. In vitro produced bovine embryos tested the embryotrophic abilities of the respective conditioned media. Conditioned medium from the apical face of polarized cell monolayers supported higher rates of development to blastocyst and expanded blastocysts. In contrast, conditioned ...

Differential display of Poly (A+) RNA isolated from zygotic embryos of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) in 9 stages of development was used to isolate several cDNAs of differentially expressed genes during embryo development. Many cDNA sequences share low similarities to any known DNA or protein sequences but 5 transcripts are predicted to encode homologues of DNA-binding proteins, GTP-binding pr...

Environmental conditions during early mammalian embryo development are critical and some adaptational phenomena are observed. However, the mechanisms underlying them remain largely masked. Previously, we reported that AQP5 expression is modified by the environmental condition without losing the developmental potency. In this study, AQP11 was examined instead. To compare expression pattern betwe...

In contemporary knowledge landscapes, interdisciplinary communication is crucial. In many cases, the interaction among experts of different fields is challenging, especially with regard to controversial definitions at the intersection of law, science, and bioethics. We analyze the legal definitions of the term “embryo” as the result of legal, ethical, as well as scientific implications, at the ...

In ovo electroporation is an excellent method to ectopically induce or inhibit gene expression in chicken embryos and to study the in vivo function of genes during embryonic development. However, the application of electroporation in ovo to date is limited to an early stage of incubation (< stage 20). In older embryos (> stage 22), the vitelline and allantoic vessels have developed extensively ...

Seed morphogenesis consists of embryogenesis and the development of maternal tissues such as the inner and outer integuments, both of which give rise to seed coats. We show that expression of chimeric repressors derived from NAC-REGULATED SEED MORPHOLOGY1 and -2 (NARS1 and NARS2, also known as NAC2 and NAM, respectively) caused aberrant seed shapes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Double knockout mutan...