DNA damage induces a meiotic arrest in mouse oocytes mediated by the spindle assembly checkpoint

Josie K. Collins, Simon I. R. Lane, Julie A. Merriman and Keith T. Jones ()
Additional contact information
Josie K. Collins: Centre for Biological Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton
Simon I. R. Lane: Centre for Biological Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton
Julie A. Merriman: Centre for Biological Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton
Keith T. Jones: Centre for Biological Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Extensive damage to maternal DNA during meiosis causes infertility, birth defects and abortions. However, it is unknown if fully grown oocytes have a mechanism to prevent the creation of DNA-damaged embryos. Here we show that DNA damage activates a pathway involving the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) in response to chemically induced double strand breaks, UVB and ionizing radiation. DNA damage can occur either before or after nuclear envelope breakdown, and provides an effective block to anaphase-promoting complex activity, and consequently the formation of mature eggs. This contrasts with somatic cells, where DNA damage fails to affect mitotic progression. However, it uncovers a second function for the meiotic SAC, which in the context of detecting microtubule–kinetochore errors has hitherto been labelled as weak or ineffectual in mammalian oocytes. We propose that its essential role in the detection of DNA damage sheds new light on its biological purpose in mammalian female meiosis.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9553 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms9553

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9553

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().