Meiosis in Saccharomyces yeast produces four haploid gametes that usually fuse with each other, an extreme form of self-fertilization among the products of a single meiosis known as automixis. The gametes signal to each other with sex pheromone. Better-quality gametes produce stronger signals and are preferred as mates. We suggest that the function of this signalling system is to enable mate ch...

A comparative light and electron microscopy study was done on cauda epididymal spermatozoa obtained from correspondingly-aged sterile t6/tw32, and fertile T/tw32, T/t6 and BALB/c, mice. The results show that all of the males, regardless of age, contained defective gametes and that all contained the same types of aberrant gametes. The oldest males of each genotype contained more abnormal gametes...

References 1. Yokoyama, S. (2000). Molecular evolution of vertebrate visual pigments. Prog. Retin. Eye Res. 19, 385–419. 2. Dulai, K.S., von Dornum, M., Mollon, J.D., and Hunt, D.M. (1999). The evolution of trichromatic color vision by opsin gene duplication in New World and Old World primates. Genome Res. 9, 629–638. 3. Woodburne, M.O., Rich, T.H., and Springer, M.S. (2003). The evolution of t...

For a long time, the cryopreservation of gametes and embryos remained a major hurdle for the clinicians and scientists in terms of success. However, recent technical advancement in the field of cryobiology has opened up various options for freezing gametes and embryos at different developmental stages. The tendency of the IVF world to switch over to naturalcycle IVF and to elective single-embry...

M aking sperm in a culture dish has been a long-term goal of reproductive biologists. In 2010, a group of investigators from Yokohama, Japan, reinvestigated an organ culture system that was originally used for testicular tissue in the 1960s (1–3). By using better molecular markers, they were able to demonstrate that some cells in this culture system underwent complete meiosis to form round sper...

The generation of artificial gametes is a real challenge for the scientific community today. In vitro development of human eggs and sperm will pave the way for the understanding of the complex process of human gametogenesis and will provide with human gametes for the study of infertility and the onset of some inherited disorders. However, the great promise of artificial gametes resides in their...

Eukaryotic organisms age, yet detrimental age-associated traits are not passed on to progeny. How life span is reset from one generation to the next is not known. We show that in budding yeast resetting of life span occurs during gametogenesis. Gametes (spores) generated by aged cells show the same replicative potential as gametes generated by young cells. Age-associated damage is no longer det...