Stop and go : Oocyten auf ihrem Weg zu einer befruchtungsfähigen Eizelle

Fertilization, the fusion of the female and male gamete, is the initiating event for the development of any sexually-reproducing organism. The production of haploid gametes involves two consecutive meiotic divisions during which the diploid genome is reduced to half, creating four haploid cells. Here, we discuss how the interplay of dynamic protein phosphorylation and irreversible protein degradation drives meiotic cell cycle regulation in vertebrate oocytes.