Background: Assisted fertilization procedures are a currently widespread practice to regulate reproduction in humans and animals. The arising question is why the human being manipulating gametes to generate new individuals, if we do not understand yet the molecular mechanism of fertilization?. Successful completion of fertilization in mammals is dependent on three membrane fusion events: 1. the...

Studies on cell fusion-mediated nuclear reprogramming have led to the breakthrough of the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. While this technology has neared stem cells to applications more than any other method, the mechanistic bases of reprogramming remain largely unsolved. In this context, comparative studies of oocyte and cell fusion-mediated reprogramming hold the greatest pro...

Background: This study was conducted in order to determine whether BCB staining performed on immature bovine oocytes to assess G6pdhlevel has an impact on ivf/ivp technology in bovine embryos. Both spermatozoa and oocytes metabolize glucose through the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), and NADPH appears necessary for gamete fusion. Activity of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), the key e...

Fertilization involves cell-cell fusion of a sperm with the oocyte. This fusion restores the diploid genome, activates the oocyte, and initiates embryonic development. The identification of proteins mediating the fusion of sperm with oocyte plasma membrane (oolemma) is important to a deeper knowledge of fertilization. Defects in sperm-oocyte fusion may account for some form of human infertility...

Sperm-egg fusion is a cell-cell membrane fusion event essential for the propagation of sexually reproducing organisms. In gamete fusion, as in other fusion events, such as virus-cell and intracellular vesicle fusion, membrane fusion is a two-step process. Attachment of two membranes through cell-surface molecules is followed by the physical merger of the plasma membrane lipids. Recent progress ...

When a sperm and oocyte unite into one cell upon fertilization, membranous fusion between the sperm and oocyte occurs. In mice, Izumo1 and a tetraspanin molecule CD9 are required for sperm-oocyte fusion as one of the oocyte factors, and another tetraspanin molecule CD81 is also thought to involve in this process. Since these two tetraspanins often form a complex upon cell-cell interaction, it i...

Fertilization is the fusion of the male and female gamete. The process involves the fusion of an oocyte with a sperm, creating a single diploid cell, the zygote, from which a new individual organism will develop. The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of fertilization has fascinated researchers for many years. In this review, we focus on this intriguing process at the molecular level. Seve...

The role and interaction of microtubules and microfilaments, which are important for progressing the events during oocyte maturation and activation, are not well understood. This study was designed to examine the cytoskeletal changes of the porcine oocyte activated electrically or by sperm with relation to the effects of oocyte aging and the paternal and maternal contributions. During electric ...

Male infertility has become a very serious problem in the human reproduction system, but the molecular mechanism of infertility remains largely unknown. Fertilization is the phenomenon in which a sperm and oocyte find each other, interact, and fuse. Sperm-oocyte fusion-related factors on the sperm side play crucial roles in male infertility. For example, IZUMO1 is well-known as a sperm protein ...

The influence of oocyte age and presence of oocyte meiotic apparatus on the behaviour of introduced blastomere nuclei was evaluated. Blastomeres from 4-cell mouse embryos were fused to intact (metaphase II) oocytes, demi-oocytes (nucleate) or cytoplast (anucleate). Fusion and simultaneous activation of the recipient oocytes were accomplished by a single electrical pulse at 20 or 24 h post human...