Cell division, the basic means by which genetic information is passed from generation to generation, involves tightly coordinated movements of a cell's DNA. This page describes the major phases of ...

In vertebrate meiosis, unfertilized eggs are arrested in metaphase II by cytostatic factor (CSF), which is required to maintain mitotic cyclin-dependent kinase activity. Fertilization triggers a ...

The process by which an immature oocyte develops into a fertilizable gamete is known as oocyte maturation. In most animals, the mature oocytes or eggs are arrested in the meiotic cell cycle awaiting ...

The chromosomes align along the metaphase plate. As in mitosis metaphase, (and unlike meiosis metaphase I), fibers from the centrioles begin to pull on each one of the chromosomes from both directions ...

Histones are the fundamental components of the nucleosome. Physiologically relevant variation is introduced into this structure through chromatin remodeling, addition of covalent modifications, or ...

The hallmark of successful human reproduction is the fusion between a haploid spermatozoon and a metaphase II oocyte. The generation of such an oocyte involves a series of steps whereby ...

Biologists studying human reproduction have identified what is likely the major contributing factor to the maternal age-associated increase in aneuploidy, the term for an abnormal number of ...

According to the theory old cells split into new cells and the formation of new cells is known as cell division or cell production. This was firstly observed by Flemming in 1882 but an extensive in ...