Oogenesis in Vertebrates

Ex Ovo Omnia – All from the Egg (William Harvey, 1651)

The formation of gametes, eggs and sperm, is critical for the propagation of a species. Gametes are totipotent cells, since their progeny will form all tissues of an organism. Moreover, gametes are an immortal cell line, since their descendants will form new gametes in the next generation. Female gametes are formed during oogenesis, which prepares the egg for fertilization and provides essential gene products for early embryogenesis. Defects in oogenesis lead to sterility and are the most frequent genetic cause of human developmental defects such as Down syndrome.

Our goal is to identify and molecularly characterize genes controlling oogenesis in vertebrates using the zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model organism. The zebrafish combines a number of suitable properties for research, which we exploited to isolate a number of mutations in key genes of oogenesis. Currently we identify and characterize these genes, which will help us to understand vertebrate oogenesis. The long-term aim of our research is to apply the knowledge about zebrafish oogenesis to humans and to study the implication of the homologous genes in defects of human fertility and development.