A team of researchers with members from Taiwan, the U.S., China and Japan has found that mitochondrial DNA from sperm that makes its way into an embryo begins to self-destruct before autophagosomes in the cytoplasm can reach it. In their paper published in the journal Science, the researchers describe their study involving the close monitoring of male mitochondrial DNA activity immediately after an embryo has been fertilized and as it is subsequently destroyed—they also offer some theories regarding why this occurs.
Tag: Japan
5 Surprising Facts About Egg Freezing
A city in Japan has announced that it will pay a large part of the cost of egg freezing for women who live there, as part of a program aimed at raising the country’s low birth rate. Egg freezing is the process of extracting egg cells from a woman’s ovaries and storing them for later use.
The True Cost of Fertility Treatment in Japan
An increasing number of couples nationwide are relying on fertility treatments to conceive without adequately understanding the financial, physical and emotional toll such therapy takes on participants.
Egg or Sperm? Scientists Identify A Gene that Makes the Call
Providing insight into the sometimes mysterious biology of reproduction, researchers in Japan have identified a gene that controls whether the reproductive precursor cells known as germ cells eventually become sperm or eggs.
Single Mutation in Beta-Catenin Gene Can Lead to Infertility
Scientists from the RIKEN BioResource Center in Tsukuba, Japan, have discovered that a single mutation in the beta-catenin gene, which codes a protein known to be deeply involved in a number of developmental and homeostatic processes, can lead to infertility not through a disruption of the production of egg or sperm cells, but rather by leading to abnormalities in the morphology of the sexual organs, making natural reproduction impossible.
Climate Change Could Alter Male-Female Ratio
Climate change could affect the ratio of human males to human females that are born in some countries, a new study from Japan suggests. The researchers found that male fetuses may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Mouse Cloned from a Mere Drop of Blood
Scientists in Japan have been able, for the first time, to successfully clone a mouse from a blood sample drawn from a living donor’s tail.