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Beginning for first submissions in August 2006, fees for the first color figure will be waived when both the first and last authors are members in good standing in the Society for the Study of Reproduction! At least one must be a Regular member; the other may be a Trainee member. If you are contemplating submitting a paper to BOR, and even if you are not, we urge you to become a member of the SSR. Remember, to qualify for the color fee reduction, you must be a member in good standing at the time of submission, so don't wait until the last moment! Contact the SSR Business Office if you have any questions, or visit the SSR website at http://www.ssr.org.
Allocation of Cells in Mouse Blastocyst Is Not Determined by the Order of Cleavage of the First Two Blastomeres Malgorzata Waksmundzka, Anna Wisniewska, and Marek Maleszewski. Biol Reprod 2006; 75:582–587. Published online ahead of print 5 July 2006; DOI 10.1095/biolreprod.106.053165
Cleavage and (not) marking fate The time and mechanisms of establishment of the two cellular lineages found in the mouse blastocyst, the trophectoderm and the inner cell mass, is currently a hotly debated issue. Recent controversial reports suggest that the two lineages can be traced back to the cleavage of the first two blastomeres and that the order of blastomere cleavage establishes the two cell lineages. In a meticulous study on p. 582 by Waksmundzka, Wisniewska, and Maleszewski from Warsaw University, blastomeres were labeled with tetramethylrhodamine-conjugated dextran to trace their fate to the blastocyst stage. The evidence is persuasive that the order of blastomere cleavage does not establish or mark the fate of the resulting cells as either trophectoderm or inner cell mass. This work does not lend support to the recent idea that lineage fate is established by cleavage of the first two blastomeres and is much more consistent with several classical studies on the totipotency of cleavage-stage blastomeres published 30–40 years ago by Tarkowski and Rossant.
Bovine Seminal Plasma Proteins PDC-109, BSP-A3, and BSP-30-kDa Share Functional Roles in Storing Sperm in the Oviduct
Ignotz, Jacob L. Mueller, Puttaswamy Manjunath, and Susan S. Suarez. Biol Reprod 2006; 75:501–507. Published online ahead of print 21 June 2006; DOI 10.1095/biolreprod.106.053306
Creating a nurturing oviduct Sperm have a tough life in the oviduct and, in order to be successful, they must maintain motility and fertilizing ability throughout their long journey to the oocyte. When sperm deposited in the female reproductive tract reach the oviduct, they bind to the epithelium and form a storage reservoir that in some way prolongs their motile life. Bull sperm become coated with bovine seminal vesicle proteins (BSPs) at ejaculation, and, in a study on p. 501, Gwathmey et al. examine the role of these proteins during oviductal storage. It is difficult to determine the state of sperm in vivo; therefore, this study made use of an experimentally malleable system of explants of oviductal epithelium to test the effect of BSPs on binding affinity and motility. The BSPs both enhance sperm binding to oviductal epithelium and prolong the motile life span of the sperm. Furthermore, structural analyses of the BSPs suggest that differences in binding affinities may provide sperm with adaptability for variation among females.
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