Sagnik Nag, Amity University, Kolkata
During fertilisation, when a sperm cell fuses with an egg cell or oocyte from the female it forms a zygote. But there’s an interesting fact to it, oocytes are the largest cell produced by most organisms. In fact in humans, oocytes are comparatively larger than normal body cells. The growth of an Oocyte depends on certain physical key factors that might drive smaller cells to dump their contents into a larger cell. The obvious reasons for the anomalous growth of the oocyte indicate the fact that they need to accumulate enough nutrients to support a growing embryo after fertilization, furthermore mitochondria to power all of that growth.
According to a scientific study conducted by a team of MIT biologists and mathematicians, predicts that the rapid increase in the size of the oocyte before fertilisation is due to the presence of the cells surrounding the oocyte, which are referred to as “nurse cells” that dump their contents into the larger cell.
Researchers found out, Oocyte and early embryonic development in fruit flies and other invertebrates follow certain similarity patterns to those of mammals, but it is not known yet if the same physiological mechanism of egg cell growth might be seen in humans or in other mammals. Female fruit flies develop their eggs within cysts. An immature oocyte predominantly undergoes four cycles of cellular division to harbour one egg cell and 15 nurse cells. On the other hand, mathematicians using mathematical equations and relationships established a comprehensive model that efficiently demonstrates how cell contents are being transferred from the 15 small nurse cells to the large oocyte, based on their sizes and their molecular connections to each other. It has been predicted that the nurse cells closest to the oocyte transfer their contents first, which is followed by the cells in more distant layers.
The research funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences proclaimed that the findings demonstrate how cells coordinate their behaviour, utilising both biological and physical mechanisms, to bring about proficient tissue-level behaviour.
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Source- “Dynamics of hydraulic and contractile wave-mediated fluid transport during Drosophila oogenesis” by Jasmin Imran Alsous, Nicolas Romeo, Jonathan A. Jackson, Frank M. Mason, Jörn Dunkel, and Adam C. Martin, 2 March 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.http://10.1073/pnas.2019749118
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