Mouse ovarian germ cell cysts undergo programmed breakdown to form primordial follicles.

By M. Pepling, A. Spradling. Developmental Biology, 2001

712 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In many organisms, early germline development takes place within cysts of interconnected cells that form by incomplete cytokinesis and later undergo programmed breakdown. We recently identified similar cell clusters within the fetal mouse ovary, but the fate and functional significance of these germ cell cysts remained unclear. Here, we show that mouse cysts undergo programmed breakdown between 20.5-22.5 dpc, during which approximately 33% of the oocytes survive to form primordial follicles. This process accounts for most of the perinatal reduction in germ cell numbers and germ cell apoptosis reported by previous authors, and suggests that perinatal germ cell loss is a developmentally regulated process that is distinct from the follicular atresia that occurs during adult life. Our observations also suggest a novel function for a transient cyst stage of germ cell development. Prior to breakdown, mitochondria and ER reorganize into perinuclear aggregates, and can be seen within the ring canals joining adjacent germ cells. Cysts may ensure that oocytes destined to form primordial follicles acquire populations of functional mitochondria, through an active process that has been evolutionarily conserved.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f99b39e2ccad261b59b91bdbf35e8a486bcbf17b

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In Molecular Biology

1. Jacqueline Canning
2. Joshua Johnson
3. Jonathan L. Tilly
4. J. Pru
5. M. Matzuk
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In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

1. Ankur K. Nagaraja
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Citations in the corpus

• Corrigendum: Germline stem cells and follicular renewal in the postnatal mammalian ovary (2004, methodology): “The first experiment, based on past studies showing that extensive levels of oocyte apoptosis occur in the newborn mouse ovary coincident with follicle formatio”
• The mammalian ovary from genesis to revelation. (2009, background): “Individual oocytes within these nests lack surrounding somatic cells, and the majority of the oocytes will undergo apoptosis as the germ cell clusters break down to give rise to primordial follicles (117).”
• The pros and cons of phytoestrogens (2010, neutral): “At birth, mice have large oocyte clusters or nests; these nests dissociate into individual oocytes surrounded by granulosa cells during the first week of life [212].”