Molecular mechanisms of meiotic maturation and arrest in fish and amphibian oocytes.

Fish and amphibian oocytes provide excellent experimental systems for both biochemical and cytological analyses of regulatory mechanisms of meiotic maturation and arrest. Recent work shows that despite the adoption of common players, such as maturation-promoting factor (MPF), c-mos proto-oncogene product (Mos), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), there is clear species-specificity in the mechanisms, probably due to the difference in the states of inactive MPF in immature oocytes. However, it has also been revealed that the mechanisms controlling meiotic maturation and arrest include ubiquitous pathways; The translational activation of masked mRNAs encoding Mos and cyclin B for initiating maturation and the Mos-MAPK pathway for maintaining metaphase arrest.