Syllabus
Oogenesis: Primordial germ cells, meiosis initiation, primordial follicle establishment, follicle growth, basic of hormonal regulation of follicle development
Meiotic recombination: The creation of induced double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs), DSBs repair, meiotic recombination checkpoint, relationship between meiotic recombination and chromosome segregation in meiosis I
Oocyte prophase I arrest, a role of cAMP in prophase I arrest and its connection to the acquiring of oocyte developmental competence, communication between oocyte and cumulus cells, resumption of meiosis
Signaling pathways controlling bipolar spindle formation, a role of acentriolar microtubule organizing centers (MTOCs) in spindle formation, comparison of spindle formation in mouse and human oocytes, asymmetric cell division and first polar body extrusion
Chromosome segregation in meiosis I, spindle assembly checkpoint, regulation of activities of E3 ubiquitin ligases APC/C and SCF, aneuploidy and its relationship to infertility and developmental disorders.
Metaphase II block, fertilization from the view of meiosis finalization, initiation of the early embryonic development
Specifics of cell cycle regulation in early embryos, regulation of maternal mRNAs stability and zygotic genome activation from the perspective of cell cycle
Spindle formation in early embryos - step by step transition from the acentriolar to the centriolar spindle, transition from asymmetric to symmetric cell divisions
Role of DNA damage in the oocyte and embryo development - connection to infertility, role of maternally expressed factors for DNA repair shortly after fertilization, cell cycle checkpoints, chromosome aberrations and embryos development, a side effect of cancer therapy on the oocyte genome integrity
Genome editing in mammals using direct zygote editing - generation of biomedical animal models and bioreactors, gene targeting as a tool for oocyte and early embryos research
Live imaging of oocytes and embryos: single and multiphoton microscopy, light sheet microscopy (SPIM), live embryo imaging in clinical practice
The course is taught with the support of the project reg. number CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/16_015/0002362
Annotation
The basic goal of this course is to provide a deep understanding of mammalian oocyte and embryo development mainly from the perspective of chromosome dynamics and integrity and specific cell cycle regulation. The primary language of the course is Czech but when at least one student request course will be in English.