A new study conducted on fruit flies reports the first evidence that oocytes -- the cells that become eggs -- regularly rejuvenate the critical protein linkages that bind chromosomes together. The findings are a potentially important step toward helping women reduce their risk of pregnancy complications as they age.
A Dartmouth study conducted on fruit flies reports the first evidence in any organism that oocytes -- the cells that become eggs -- regularly rejuvenate the critical protein linkages that bind chromosomes together.
"Our work is the first in the field to demonstrate that cohesive linkages in oocytes can form after the original linkages are generated," says Sharon Bickel, professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth and the paper's corresponding author. The Bickel Lab uses fruit flies as a model for investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying chromosome cohesion. They have found that the effects of aging on fruit fly oocytes are similar to that seen in humans. In 2008, the lab reported a method for"aging" fruit fly oocytes that provided evidence that aging causes a loss of cohesive linkages.
The Dartmouth researchers took several different approaches, says Haseeb, who began the project as a graduate student in Dartmouth's Molecular and Cellular Biology program. Some of the fly strains the team utilized were generated by co-author Katherine Weng when she was a graduate student in Bickel's lab.
"Interestingly, two of the regulatory proteins that we know are required for rejuvenation in fly oocytes also are present on mouse oocyte chromosomes -- after the original cohesive linkages are formed," Haseeb says."That is consistent with them playing a role in rejuvenation in mammals."
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