The Interaction Between pam-1 and MPF in Oocyte Maturation

Caenorhabditis elegans are microscopic worms that are a great model organism for genetics because of their ability to reproduce quickly and the visibility of developing oocytes. Their gonad has been a major focus of the Lyczak lab, due to similarity of genes to other organisms that regulate oocytes. So far we have examined the developing oocytes closely and identified the maturation promoting factor (MPF) and a few possible targets in its activation and deactivation pathways. One of the targets found is WEE-1.3, which keeps MPF inactive in the immature oocytes. Inactivation of wee-1.3 causes oocytes to precociously mature. This protein inhibits a component of the MPF pathway, CDK-1. The last protein found in the MPF pathway is a puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase(PAM-1) which regulates a timely exit in meiosis