Can Nucleoli Be Markers of Developmental Potential in Human Zygotes?
In 1999, Tesarik and Greco reported that they could predict the developmental potential of human zygotes from a single static evaluation of their pronuclei. This was based on the distribution and number of specific nuclear organelles - the nucleoli. Recent studies in mice show that nucleoli play a key role in parental genome restructuring after fertilization, and that interfering with this process may lead to developmental failure. These studies thus support the Tesarik-Greco evaluation as a potentially useful method for selecting high-quality embryos in human assisted reproductive technologies. In this opinion article we discuss recent evidence linking nucleoli to parental genome reprogramming, and ask whether nucleoli can mirror or be used as representative markers of embryonic parameters such as chromosome content or DNA fragmentation.
Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic; Institute of Molecular Genetics, Prague, Czech Republic.
Helena
H
Fulka
Center for Developmental Biology, RIKEN, Kobe, Japan.
Hirohisa
H
Kyogoku
Shemyakin-Ovchinikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Olga
O
Zatsepina
GENNET, Prague, Czech Republic.
Alena
A
Langerova
Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic. Electronic address: fulka@vuzv.cz.
Josef
J
Fulka
D000818:Animals; D002466:Cell Nucleolus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005306:Fertilization; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; D015053:Zygote / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism