Aneuploidy in mammalian oocytes and the impact of maternal ageing
2022 | journal article; overview. A publication with affiliation to the University of Göttingen.
Jump to: Cite & Linked | Documents & Media | Details | Version history
Documents & Media
Details
- Authors
- Charalambous, Chloe; Webster, Alexandre; Schuh, Melina
- Abstract
- During fertilization, the egg and the sperm are supposed to contribute precisely one copy of each chromosome to the embryo. However, human eggs frequently contain an incorrect number of chromosomes — a condition termed aneuploidy, which is much more prevalent in eggs than in either sperm or in most somatic cells. In turn, aneuploidy in eggs is a leading cause of infertility, miscarriage and congenital syndromes. Aneuploidy arises as a consequence of aberrant meiosis during egg development from its progenitor cell, the oocyte. In human oocytes, chromosomes often segregate incorrectly. Chromosome segregation errors increase in women from their mid-thirties, leading to even higher levels of aneuploidy in eggs from women of advanced maternal age, ultimately causing age-related infertility. Here, we cover the two main areas that contribute to aneuploidy: (1) factors that influence the fidelity of chromosome segregation in eggs of women from all ages and (2) factors that change in response to reproductive ageing. Recent discoveries reveal new error-causing pathways and present a framework for therapeutic strategies to extend the span of female fertility.
- Issue Date
- 2022
- Journal
- Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
- Project
- EXC 2067: Multiscale Bioimaging
- Organization
- Max-Planck-Institut für Multidisziplinäre Naturwissenschaften
- Working Group
- RG Schuh
- ISSN
- 1471-0072
- eISSN
- 1471-0080
- Language
- English