Introduction
Research in the Jaramillo-Lambert Lab focuses on the process of sexual reproduction. This includes meiosis, fertilization, and the egg-to-embryo transition. During sexual reproduction, eggs and sperm are generated from parental cells through the specialized cell division of meiosis. Meiosis decreases the number of chromosomes in the cell so that eggs and sperm contain half the number of chromosomes as the parent. At fertilization, one egg and one sperm fuse to create an embryo with the same number of chromosomes as the parent. After fertilization, the newly created cell transitions to become an active embryo in a process called the egg-to-embryo transition. All of these events (meiosis, fertilization, and the egg-to-embryo transition) must be tightly regulated to ensure that a healthy embryo is produced. Problems in these events can lead to infertility, miscarriages, birth defects, and cancer. We use a model organism called C. elegans as a tool to study sexual reproduction. C. elegans are microscopic roundworms with a short life cycle and clear body (to study meiosis, fertilization, and embryo development in live animals!). In addition, they have genes that function in sexual reproduction that are orthologs (genes that retain the same functions in other species) to human genes.