In Arabidopsis thaliana, the female gametophyte is a highly polarized structure consisting of four cell types: one egg cell and two synergids, one central cell, and three antipodal cells. In this report, we describe the characterization of a novel female gametophyte mutant, eostre, which affects establishment of cell fates in the mature embryo sac. The eostre phenotype is caused by misexpressio...

Background The aim of this study is to examine the effects of cranberry extract prescription in sensitive days of pregnancy on development and histomorphometric changes in liver of mouse embryo. MaterialsAndMethods A total of 24 pregnant mice were divided into equal 4 groups. The control group received no injection, while sham group was injected with saline and experimental groups were given cr...

Climate change and impoundment increase river temperatures, shifting the bioclimatic envelope in which freshwater biota have evolved increasing salmonid egg mortality. To mitigate this, conservation flows from reservoirs are often implemented to maintain favourable water temperatures downstream impoundments throughout embryo development. However, as becomes scarcer, there is a need understand r...

FoxH1 (Fast1) was first characterized as the transcriptional partner for Smad proteins. Together with Smad2/4, it forms the activin response factor (ARF) that binds to the Mix.2 promoter in Xenopus embryos. Foxh1 is expressed maternally in Xenopus. Depletion of maternal Foxh1 mRNA results in abnormalities of head and dorsal axis formation. We show that FoxH1 is required, together with XTcf3/bet...

The notochord is critical for the normal development of vertebrate embryos. It serves both as the major skeletal element of the embryo and as a signaling source for the establishment of pattern within the neurectoderm, the paraxial mesoderm and other tissues. In a large-scale systematic screen of mutations affecting embryogenesis in zebrafish we identified 65 mutations that fall into 29 complem...

Loss-of-function analysis has shown that the transforming growth factor-like signaling molecule nodal is essential for mouse mesoderm development. However, definitive proof of nodal function in other developmental processes in the mouse embryo has been lacking because the null mutation blocks gastrulation. We describe the generation and analysis of a hypomorphic nodal allele. Mouse embryos hete...

Cell lines derived from the sphingomyelinosis (gene symbol, spm) mouse were established from homozygous (spm/spm) and heterozygous (spm/+) embryos according to a rigid 3T3 transfer schedule. The SPM-3T3 cells derived from a homozygous embryo showed extensive accumulation of intracellular cholesterol, attenuated esterification of exogenously added cholesterol and increased de novo cholesterol sy...

Embryological studies indicate Eupatorium laevigatum to have Antennaria type diplospory with precocious embryony. The embryo sac is of the Polygonum type and the polar nuclei fuse before anthesis (maturation of the stamens). Endosperm development is autonomous and the central cell divides only after the initial stages of embryo formation. It is estimated that about 10% of the florets in anthesi...

Background. Assisted reproductive technology has been linked to the increased incidence of monozygotic twinning. It is of clinical importance due to the increased risk of complications in multiple pregnancies in general and in monozygotic twins in particular. Case. A 29-year-old female, nulligravida underwent her first IVF cycle. Three poor-quality cleavage stage embryos were transferred result...

BACKGROUND Embryo morphology has been proposed as an alternative marker of chro- mosomal status. The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate the association between the chromosomal status on day 3 of embryo development and blas- tocyst morphology. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 596 embryos obtained from 106 cycles of intra- cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) followed...