Miss Jess Greaney

Jess is a PhD student with Professor Hayden Homer in the Christopher Chen Oocyte Biology Laboratory and will present a summary of their most recent publication in Nature Communications entitled “Cdk1 inactivation induces post-anaphase-onset spindle migration and membrane protrusion required for extreme asymmetry in mouse oocytes”.

The female reproductive cell, the oocyte, undergoes a unique phase of maturation prior to fertilisation, which involves a highly asymmetric cell division to halve its chromosome number while retaining the bulk of its cell volume. Retention of cell volume is particularly important, as following fertilisation, the oocyte provides virtually all the support for the developing embryo. The Homer group has used 4-dimensional confocal microscopy in high temporal resolution to investigate the late stages of oocyte division and have uncovered the essential role of events late in maturation for achieving asymmetric cell division, providing new insight into how oocytes successfully prepare for fertilisation.