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Premeiotic, post meiotic, pre mitotic, or postmitotic events are all possibilities if imprints are created during male and female gametogenesis. However, if only one of the daughter cells receives parental imprints following mitosis, this would result in two functionally different female gametes or two functionally different sperm cells.
Fertilization is the fusion of gametes to produce a new organism. In animals, the process involves a sperm fusing with an ovum, which eventually leads to the development of an embryo. Depending on the animal species, the process can occur within the body of the female in internal fertilization, or outside in the case of external fertilization.
A germ cell is any cell that gives rise to the gametes of an organism that reproduces sexually. In many animals, the germ cells originate in the primitive streak and migrate via the gut of an embryo to the developing gonads. There, they undergo meiosis, followed by cellular differentiation into mature gametes, either eggs or sperm.
This diversity in organisms that show parental origin effects has prompted theorists to place the evolutionary origin of genomic imprinting before the last common ancestor of plants and animals, over a billion years ago. [61] Natural selection for genomic imprinting requires genetic variation in a population.
Mitotic germ stem cells, oogonia, divide by mitosis to produce primary oocytes committed to meiosis. Unlike sperm production, oocyte production is not continuous. These primary oocytes begin meiosis but pause in diplotene of meiosis I while in the embryo. All of the oogonia and many primary oocytes die before birth.
Mitotic cell division enables sexually reproducing organisms to develop from the one-celled zygote, which itself is produced by fusion of two gametes, each having been produced by meiotic cell division. [5] [6] After growth from the zygote to the adult, cell division by mitosis allows for continual construction and repair of the organism. [7]
Parthenogenesis can occur without meiosis through mitotic oogenesis. This is called apomictic parthenogenesis. Mature egg cells are produced by mitotic divisions, and these cells directly develop into embryos. In flowering plants, cells of the gametophyte can undergo this process. The offspring produced by apomictic parthenogenesis are full ...
The zygote is the earliest developmental stage. In humans and most other anisogamous organisms, a zygote is formed when an egg cell and sperm cell come together to create a new unique organism. The formation of a totipotent zygote with the potential to produce a whole organism depends on epigenetic reprogramming.