By activating just eight genes for transcription factors, researchers have directly converted mouse stem cells into oocyte-like cells that mature and can even be fertilized like egg cells. In addition to giving new insight into egg cell development, the research may lead to a simple route for generating large amounts of oocyte cytoplasm for use in reproductive biology and medicine.

On top of providing new insights into the mechanisms of egg cell development, the research may lead to a simple route for generating highly specialized substances unique to oocytes for use in reproductive biology and medicine.

Stored in the body until they mature into egg cells ready for fertilization, oocytes represent the very first step in the creation a new human life.

Oocytes are extremely unique because of their ability to bring forth the over two hundred kinds of highly differentiated cells needed to create an individual person, and one key to this ability is the complex mixture of substances within the fluid-like cytoplasm filling the cells.

So extraordinary are oocytes and their cytoplasm that replacing an oocyte’s DNA-containing nucleus with that of a body cell — a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer — can produce a new life, as famously demonstrated with Dolly the sheep.

Thus, a fundamental understanding of oocytes and their development is important for both advancing reproductive medicine and better grasping how life propagates, but knowledge of the many genes that orchestrate oocyte development is still far from complete.

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Materials provided by Kyushu University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.