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Abstract
The process of oogenesis culminates in steroid-induced oocyte maturation to produce
the fertilizable egg. A quintessential biological entity, the egg is central to the
production of new individuals. The result of egg fertilization by a sperm cell is
the production of the mother of all stem cells (i.e. the zygote). Furthermore, the
egg cytoplasm is the only one known to support reprogramming a transplanted nucleus
to give rise to an individual (i.e. animal cloning). Zebrafish oocyte maturation is
a complex event encompassing a number of cellular changes including germinal vesicle
migration (GVM) and dissolution or breakdown (GVD), ooplasmic clearing (OC) with correlated
yolk protein changes (YP), development of osmoregulation (OR) in fresh water, the
formation of the future embryonic pole, the blastodisc (BF) and activatibility (AC)
or cortical maturation. In zebrafish, and many other teleosts, 17alpha, 20beta-dihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one
(17alpha, 20beta-DP) has been shown to be the normal inducer of oocyte maturation.
A 17alpha, 20beta-DP membrane-resident receptor mediates oocyte maturation via non-genomic
mechanisms that are beginning to be understood. This paper will highlight some of
the cellular markers resulting from the signaling initiated by 17alpha, 20beta-DP.
By describing these markers, it is hoped that workers in the field will have additional
tools to help further elucidate the signaling events of oocyte maturation.