Description
The oocytes of most animals arrest at diplotene or diakinesis, but resume meiosis (meiotic maturation) in response to hormones. In C. elegans, maturation of the 1 oocyte requires the presence of sperm, Gas-adenylate cyclase-PKA signaling in the gonadal sheath cells, and germline function of two Tis11-like CCCH zinc-finger proteins, OMA-1 and OMA-2 (OMA proteins). Prior studies indicate that the OMA proteins redundantly repress the translation of specific mRNAs in oocytes (zif-1, mom-2, nos-2, glp-1) and early embryos (mei-1).