Mammalian eggs (oocytes) are formed during fetal life and establish associations with
somatic cells to form primordial follicles that create a store of germ cells (the primordial pool) …

The pineal hormone melatonin is secreted with a marked circadian rhythm. Normally,
maximum production occurs during the dark phase of the day and the duration of secretion …

Generating new life in animals by sexual reproduction depends on adequate
communication between mature and competent male and female gametes. Ion channels are …

Salivary agglutinin is encoded byDMBT1 and identical to gp-340, a member of the
scavenger receptor cysteine-rich (SRCR) superfamily. Salivary agglutinin/DMBT1 is known …

Fertilization is the union of a single sperm and an egg, an event that results in a diploid
embryo. Animals use many mechanisms to achieve this ratio; the most prevalent involves …

Mammalian oocytes are surrounded by an extracellular coat called the zona pellucida (ZP),
which, from an evolutionary point of view, is the most ancient of the coats that envelope …

Proteins involved in reproduction often evolve rapidly, raising the possibility that changes in
these proteins contribute to reproductive isolation between species. We review the evidence …

Epigenetic modifications, and particularly DNA methylation, have been studied in many
tissues, both healthy and diseased, and across numerous developmental stages. The …

For many decades, the dogma prevailed that female mammals had a finite pool of oocytes at
birth and this was gradually exhausted during a lifetime of reproductive function. However, in …

By adopting internal fertilization, the meeting of both gametes-the sperm and the egg-and
thus the highly coordinated sequence of interactions leading to fertilization, occur in the …