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              Open Access  
Copyright: The authors. This article is an open access 
article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) which permits unrestricted use, 
distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly 
cited. 
 
                              
                              
                              Review Article 
                              
                              11.
                              Temporal expression of marker transcripts: Key to 
                              successful maturation and development of mammalian 
                              oocytes -
                              
                              
                              A Nath, V Sharma, N E Gade, M D Pratheesh, R kumar 
                              and 
                              P K Dubey Vet World. 2012; 5(2): 121-127
 
                
              doi: 
              10.5455/vetworld.2012.121-127 
                
              
              
          
 
              Abstract 
 
                              
                              In vitro embryo production (IVEP) is one of the 
                              tool to gain rapid genetic improvement in 
                              livestock besides its use in conservation of 
                              endangered species. IVEP provides necessary 
                              starting material for the basic research in animal 
                              development, embryo genomics and stem cells. The 
                              success of IVEP depends upon several major factors 
                              such as quality of oocyte and sperms, type of 
                              culture medium, culture conditions etc. In vitro 
                              produced embryos differ substantially from in vivo 
                              derived embryos in the mRNA expression patterns of 
                              genes important for development. As female 
                              germplasm (oocyte) is more valuable when compared 
                              to male germplasm (sperm) because of scanty 
                              availability and relatively fixed number, it is 
                              essential to maintain quality of oocyte in IVEP. 
                              Oocyte maturation is an inevitable step towards 
                              successful IVEP as the process of maturation is 
                              still not clearly revealed, it is essential to 
                              identify temporal expression pattern of marker 
                              genes involved during maturation process for 
                              production of developmentally competent embryos. 
                              Mammalian models can provide better insight into 
                              the oocyte maturation mechanism. This review 
                              focuses on the various marker genes which are 
                              essential for successful maturation of mammalian 
                              oocyte and are key regulators in deciding the fate 
                              of oocytes for production of developmentally 
                              competent embryos.  
                              
                              Keywords: Oocytes, 
                              Maturation, Embryo, Developmental competence, 
                              Marker transcripts 
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