Missegregation of chromosomes during the development of germ cells is the leading cause for infertility, natural miscarriages and congenital defects (e.g., Down syndrome). These failures increase with maternal age, leading to exponential drop in fertility starting at the age of 35. In the germline a special kind of cell division, termed meiosis, reduces the chromosome number by half to create the sperm and eggs by two consecutive chromosome segregations. Over a century of studies on the subject have taught us much on this developmental process, yet our knowledge on the underlying genetics and signal transduction pathways that governs germline aging is minimal.

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In the Tzur lab we use high resolution microscopy, genome editing tools, and transcriptomic analyses to answer two basic questions:

1.     How germ stem cells differentiate into mature sperm and oocytes?

2.     What governs the aging of the germline and mature oocytes?

In our research we use human oocytes donated by patients as well as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism. Using C. elegans is advantageous for many reasons. One of them is that in the worm’s gonad germ cells are organized from the stem cells to the mature gametes.