Progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation - Sciurus carolinensis (gray squirrel)

Xenopus oocytes are naturally arrested at G2 of meiosis I. Exposure to either insulin/IGF-1 or the steroid hormone progesterone breaks this arrest and induces resumption of the two meiotic division cycles and maturation of the oocyte into a mature, fertilizable egg. This process is termed oocyte maturation. The transition is accompanied by an increase in maturation promoting factor (MPF or Cdc2/cyclin B) which precedes germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Most reports point towards the Mos-MEK1-ERK2 pathway [where ERK is an extracellular signal-related protein kinase, MEK is a MAPK/ERK kinase and Mos is a p42(MAPK) activator] and the polo-like kinase/CDC25 pathway as responsible for the activation of MPF in meiosis, most likely triggered by a decrease in cAMP.