Acquisition of meiotic competence in bovine oocytes and resolution of a model system for study.

摘要

In this thesis the transition from meiotic incompetence to competence in growing bovine oocytes was found to be similar to a transition from a G;The main limitation to this work was the paucity of meiotically incompetent bovine oocytes from the ovaries of sexually mature animals. Various dissection and digestion techniques were utilized but none yielded suitable numbers of oocytes. Many follicles of suitable diameters were obtained from fetal ovaries but the oocytes were smaller and more able to undergo GVBD than the growing oocytes of adult animals. Because of their greater numbers, meiotic competence studies utilizing fetal oocytes might yield valuable insights into meiotic incompetence of adult oocytes but fetal results should be applied cautiously to adult incompetent oocytes.