University researchers have identified a new type of organelle that has not been discovered in gametes before. According to them, failure of its function causes infertility because it is responsible for the organization of the chromosomes in the gametes: "The discovery advances us towards finding medical solutions"
For years, medicine has been searching in the living world for human-like models in order to reveal the secrets of the human body and help cure diseases. In addition to a long list of similarities, some of you may be surprised to learn that we share about 70% of our genes with the zebrafish - a fact that makes it an ideal animal model for studying human diseases and biological processes. A new study, which relied on the development of egg cells in zebrafish, revealed one of the mechanisms that defects in it lead to fertility problems in humans as well. The research was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Yaniv Alkoubi from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University and was recently published in the prestigious journal Science.
Ovaries of zebrafish: the stages of early gamete development are similar to humans
Together with The doctoral students Avishag Maitlis and Vinit Komar, Dr. Elkoubi studied zebrafish ovaries, in which the stages of early gamete development are very similar to those in humans. In one of the experiments, the team of researchers identified an organelle in the form of a split fiber, which had not been discovered for more than a hundred years of research in the field. The fiber was observed coming out of the cell, stretching outwards and twists between the eggs in the cluster where they develop. "This organelle is formed in the egg during its early stages of development and is called a 'cilium' (plural cilia), or an eyelash in Hebrew. We found that the cilium is critical to the process of dividing the nucleus in the gametes and actually controls the mechanics of the chromosomes, which is necessary for the creation of gametes and fertility." explains Dr. Alkoby. Later, the researchers also identified the same organelle in the sperm cells of zebrafish, and even in the eggs and sperm of mice. Through the use of microscopy, innovative imaging and genetic analyses, the researchers were able to identify and map the roles of cilia in the eggs in the ovaries of zebrafish.
The function of the cilium is considered particularly critical and defects in it are very common and lead to fertility problems in humans, but until today the mechanism leading to them was unknown. Dr. Alkobi shares that "Failure in the organization of chromosomes within the egg and human sperm cells is the common cause of miscarriages and infertility, but the mechanisms of the failure are not clear. In fact, the discovery of the new type of cilia which plays an essential role in chromosomal organization opens completely new research directions and can provide insights that will advance us towards finding medical solutions."
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