INTERCELLULAR BRIDGES AND SYNCHRONIZATION OF GERM CELL DIFFERENTIATION DURING OOGENESIS IN THE RABBIT

Abstract

A certain degree of synchronization of germ cell differentiation is a general feature of mammalian oogenesis. In the rat (3, 10), mouse (4), and rabbit (15, 16), germ cell differentiation is highly synchronized in that there is a direct correspondence between fetal age and predominant stage of cellular activity. In the guinea pig (11), monkey (2), and man (1), the synchronized pattern is less apparent because of a considerable overlapping of mitosis, meiosis, and degeneration. Correpondence between age and stage of differentiation of a significant percentage of germ cells is found even in these species, however. In the course of an electron microscopic study of ovarian development in the newborn rabbit, we have observed that the synchronization of the oogenetic process finds expression not only in the close relationship between fetal age and stage of cellular differentiation, but also in the maturation of the germ cells in groups and in the synchronous differentiation of all the cells in each group. Such synchronization appears to be related