Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences on reproductive biology and medicine

ra0001p041 | (1) | WCRB2014

Plk1 plays a role in cortical actin polymerisation during meiosis I

Yuen Wai Shan , Zhang Qing-Hua , Carroll John

Female meiosis involves a highly asymmetrical division to form a large secondary oocyte and a small polar body. Polo-like kinase I (Plk1) is a serine/threonine kinase which is highly conserved from yeast to human and is a potent regulator of mitosis including cytokinesis. Plk1 is known to regulate myosin via the activation of RhoA which leads to the contraction of the cleavage furrow in mitotic cells. Indirect evidence has also shown that Plk1 may regulate Cdc42 activity throu...

ra0001p042 | (1) | WCRB2014

Cyclin A2 is essential for the chromosome segregation during the meiosis I of the mouse oocyte maturation

Zhang Qing-Hua , Yuen Wai Shan , Carroll John

Cyclin A, the first cyclin ever cloned, is thought to be an essential component of the cell-cycle engine. Mammalian cells encode two A-type cyclins, a testis-specific cyclin A1 and a ubiquitously expressed cyclin A2. Cyclin A2 is an essential mitotic CDK regulatory partner and is attributed with a wide range of effects early in the G2–M transition. Although its role in mitosis has been extensively investigated, research into the role of cyclin A2 in meiosis is lacking. In...