Research Seminar: Chromosome segregation in human oocytes: Why so error-prone?

Dr. Louise Newnham, Genome Damage and Stability Centre, University of Sussex

Tuesday 10th November, 1.00 p.m., Keynes Lecture Theatre 6

As women approach their mid-to-late thirties their risk of infertility and miscarriage increases sharply. The basis of this biological phenomena can be attributed to increased chromosome segregation errors in the oocyte, but what causes these errors to increase so abruptly with age is unclear. Here we present evidence that chromosomes undergo a novel ‘reverse segregation’ pattern where homologous chromosomes undergo a meiosis II-like division at meiosis I, which carries increased risk of chromosome imbalance at meiosis II (Ottolini, Newnham et al. 2015). Cytological evidence suggests deteriorated chromosome structure in oocytes from women of advanced maternal age that could help explain this reverse segregation pattern.