Abstract
Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction found in females, where growth and development of embryos occurs without fertilization by a male. Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in aphids, Daphnia, rotifers, nematodes and some other invertebrates but can also be induced efficiently in mammalian oocytes by providing appropriate stimuli invitro. Recently, parthenogenesis has attracted wide attention because of the role of activated oocytes in the field of research that have been described such as intra cytoplasmic sperm injection, cloning by nuclear transfer, somatic cell cloning, investigating culture conditions etc. & potential for deriving pluripotent stem cell lines and their differentiation into various cell lines that can be utilized for various tissue engineering applications. The parthenogenetically activated oocytes possess maternal genome and can developed in to either haploid, diploid or polyploidy embryos with the help of it we can analyze the possible role of all the genes involved in imprinting processes as well as the role the paternal genome plays during early embryo development by comparing them with fertilized embryos. Several methods are able to induce parthenogenetic activation through the elevation of cytoplasmic free calcium in oocytes. But one common, universal method or activation agents has not been developed for all species because the process is highly specific for each species. Therefore, activation step for each species need to be optimized accordingly. This review describes the general method of activation of mammalian oocytes and their genomic imprinting analysis.
Highlights
Parthenogenesis is a phenomenon of undoubted biological interest which leads to the production of living young in many types of animals, as well as in plants
Parthenogenesis has attracted wide attention because of the role of activated oocytes in the field of research that have been described such as intra cytoplasmic sperm injection, cloning by nuclear transfer, somatic cell cloning, investigating culture conditions etc. & potential for deriving pluripotent stem cell lines and their differentiation into various cell lines that can be utilized for various tissue engineering applications
The reduced development of in-vitro derived zygote suggest that the conditions of in-vitro maturation of oocytes (IVM) do not support cytoplasmic maturation, so it is very important that the improvement of the in-vitro maturation systems for oocytes aimed at defining in-vitro conditions that are more similar to the in-vivo environment [37]
Summary
Parthenogenesis is a phenomenon of undoubted biological interest which leads to the production of living young in many types of animals, as well as in plants. Parthenogenesis may initiate early embryonic development in mammals, and its lack of success in this class poses some fundamental and as yet unresolved problems regarding the significance of fertilization in the physiology of reproduction and embryonic development. This is one of the reasons why parthenogenesis is once again an area of active research. Pincus and Shapiro [4]; described the effect of cold treatment on unfertilized tubal eggs in-vitro and claimed an increased incidence of cleavage and the production of a living young. The general procedure of parthenogenetic embryo development is almost similar to the in-vitro embryo development of fertilized oocytes except the step of parthenogenetic activation with different activation agents which could either be electrical, chemical or other types and includes collection of ovaries, recovery of oocytes, in-vitro maturation of oocytes (IVM), activation of oocytes with different activation agents and invitro development of parthenogenetic embryos
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