background: the cells of mammalian female reproductive tract have been widely used for in vitro fertilization (ivf). this study was designed to study the effects of oviductal epithelial cells (oecs) and their conditioned medium during ivf on subsequent embryonic development and the relative abundance of zygote arrest 1 (zar1) transcript in ovine zygotes. methods: the in vitro matured ovine oocy...

Chlamydomonas monoica undergoes homothallic sexual reproduction in response to nitrogen starvation. Mating pairs are established in clonal culture via flagellar agglutination and fuse by way of activated mating structures to form the quadriflagellate zygote. The zygote further matures into a dormant diploid zygospore through a series of events that we collectively refer to as zygosporulation. M...

Human preimplantation embryos exhibit high levels of apoptotic cells and high rates of developmental arrest during the first week in vitro. The relation between the two is unclear and difficult to determine by conventional experimental approaches, partly because of limited numbers of embryos. We apply a mixture of experiment and mathematical modeling to show that observed levels of cell death c...

Asymmetric division of zygote is critical for pattern formation during early embryogenesis in plants and animals. It requires integration of the intrinsic and extrinsic cues prior to and/or after fertilization. How these cues are translated into developmental signals is poorly understood. Here through genetic screen for mutations affecting early embryogenesis, we identified an Arabidopsis mutan...

The first events of the development of any embryo are under maternal control until the zygotic genome becomes activated. In the mouse embryo, the major wave of transcription activation occurs at the 2-cell stage, but transcription starts already at the zygote (1-cell) stage. Very little is known about the molecules involved in this process. We show that the transcription intermediary factor 1 a...

The present study was done to uncover the possible beneficial and/or detrimental effect(s) of nano-micelle curcumin (NMC) on oocyte in-vitro maturation and pre-implantation embryo development. Forty-eight mature female Wistar rats were assigned to control, 7.5, 15, and 30 mg/kg-1 NMC-receiving (orally, for 48 days) groups. To assess the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs), the ovaries were stimulat...