Histological and Cytological Techniques to Study Perinatal Mouse Ovaries and Oocytes.

The regulation of female fertility in mammals depends on critical processes during oocyte development and maturation. Therefore, it is crucial to use specific approaches when studying mammalian female fertility to preserve ovary and oocyte structures effectively. The methods of collecting and culturing ovaries and oocytes play an essential role in the study of mammalian follicle development and oocyte quality. This chapter presents a collection of protocols that focus on various methods for studying mammalian ovaries and oocytes, providing researchers with a variety of approaches to choose from.

p53 Controls Meiotic Prophase Progression and Crossover Formation.

Meiosis initiates with the formation of double strand breaks (DSBs) throughout the genome. To avoid genomic instability, these DSBs need to be correctly repaired by homologous recombination. Surveillance mechanisms involving the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway ATM-CHK2-p53 can detect the persistence of unrepaired DBSs and activate the recombination-dependent arrest at the pachytene stage. However, a complete understanding of p53 functions under normal physiological conditions remains lacking. Here, we report a detailed analysis of the p53 role during meiotic prophase in mice spermatocytes. We show that the absence of p53 regulates prophase progression by slowing down the pachytene stage when the recombination-dependent arrest occurs. Furthermore, our results show that p53 is necessary for proper crossover (CO) formation and localization. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of p53 roles during the meiotic prophase.