Egg cells need stamina: They are formed in a women’s body before birth and have to be on standby for decades to possibly be fertilized one day. But as they age, they accumulate more and more DNA damage. Until now, it has been unclear why the cell’s repair mechanisms do not fix the damage. Researchers led by MBExC member Melina Schuh and Ninadini Sharma at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now shown in experiments with mice that aged egg cells repair their DNA less efficiently than young ones, and that repair becomes more error-prone with advancing maternal age.
-DNA repair is slower and more error-prone in aging egg cells.
-The DNA repair machinery is organized into spatially distinct nuclear DNA repair compartments that are significantly altered with age
-The age-related loss of the chromosomal glue, cohesin, further reduces DNA repair efficiency.
Link to the press release
A mouse oocyte extrudes a polar body. This important step in meiosis ensures that the egg cell contains a single set of chromosomes. Chromosomes are stained in magenta, the spindle apparatus that separates the chromosome pairs is shown in green. © Ninadini Sharma / Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences
