Activity of separase, a cysteine protease that cleaves sister chromatid cohesin at the onset of anaphase, is tightly regulated to ensure faithful chromosome segregation and genome stability. Two mechanisms negatively regulate separase: inhibition by securin and phosphorylation on serine 1121. To gauge the physiological significance of the inhibitory phosphorylation, we created a mouse strain in...

In most organisms, primordial germ cells are set aside from the cells of the body early in development. To form an embryonic gonad, germ cells often have to migrate along complex routes through and along diverse tissues until they reach the somatic part of the gonad. Recent advances have been made in the genetic analysis of these early stages of germ line development. Here we review findings fr...

Beginning over 150 years ago, sea urchins have been an essential experimental tool for our understanding of fertilization and early development. Here we summarize our recent progress on the molecular mechanisms of oocyte development and fertilization in the sea urchin resulting from completing the sequence of the purple sea urchin genome. This genomic information has enabled us to predict gene ...

elucidating the critical epigenetics events involved in differentiation and reprogramming of cells to primordial germ cells (pgcs) is among the interesting issues in stem cell research. here, i will talk about critical transcription factors and global hypomethylation in development of germ cells. evidence strongly suggests that the earliest pgcs emerging in the e7.25 mouse embryo epiblast have ...

The most primitive germ cells in adult mammalian testis are the spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) whereas primordial follicles (PFs) are considered the fundamental functional unit in ovary. However, this central dogma has recently been modified with the identification of a novel population of very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) in the adult mammalian gonads. These stem cells are more pr...

W hile stock markets and economies are smoldering all over the world, stem cell science is on fire. The promise of curing many untreatable forms of human male infertility is now one small step closer based on a recent paper in Cell. In this work, scientists from Kyoto University in Japan created mature, fertile sperm from embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells by grabbing the primitive ge...