How human eggs end up with the wrong number of chromosomes
Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 12:01
in Biology & Nature
One day before ovulation, human oocytes begin to divide into what will become mature eggs. Ideally, eggs are packaged with a complete set of 23 chromosomes, but the process is prone to error, especially with age. In a Review published October 20 in Trends in Cell Biology, researchers discuss the latest research on why many human oocytes frequently have a wrong number of chromosomes—which may lead to genetic disorders, such as Down syndrome and miscarriage.