Cohesin in oocytes-tough enough for Mammalian meiosis?
Sister chromatid cohesion is essential for cell division. During meiosis, it is also required for proper synapsis of pairs of sister chromatids and for chiasma formation and maintenance. Since mammalian oocytes remain arrested in late prophase for a very long period-up to five decades in humans-the preservation of cohesion throughout this period is a formidable challenge. Mouse models with cohesin deficiencies and aging wild-type mice showed that this challenge is not fully met: cohesion weakens and deteriorates with increasing age. These recent findings have highly significant implications for our comprehension of the genesis of aneuploidies.
Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1020, New York, NY 10029, USA. ekaterina.revenkova@mssm.edu.
Ekaterina
E
Revenkova
Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden University of Technology, Fiedlerstr. 42, MTZ, D-01307 Dresden, Germany. caroline.adelfalk@tu-dresden.de.
Caroline
C
Adelfalk
Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden University of Technology, Fiedlerstr. 42, MTZ, D-01307 Dresden, Germany. rolf.jessberger@tu-dresden.de.
Rolf
R
Jessberger