Øvrebø JI, Campsteijn C, Kourtesis I, Hausen H, Raasholm M, Thompson EM.

Cell Cycle. 2015;14(6):880-93. doi:10.1080/15384101.2015.1006000

Functional specialization of chordate CDK1 paralogs during oogenic meiosis.

”Differential spatiotemporal dynamics of the odCDK1a, d and e paralogs and the meiotic polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) and aurora kinase determine the subset of meiotic nuclei in prophase I arrest that will seed growing oocytes and complete meiosis. Whereas we find odCDK1e to be non-essential, knockdown of the odCDK1a paralog resulted in the spawning of non-viable oocytes of reduced size. Knockdown of odCDK1d also resulted in the spawning of non-viable oocytes. In this case, the oocytes were of normal size, but were unable to extrude polar bodies upon exposure to sperm, because they were unable to resume meiosis from prophase I arrest, a classical function of the sole CDK1 during meiosis in other organisms.“