Spindle assembly checkpoint-related meiotic defect in oocytes from LT/Sv mice has cytoplasmic origin and diminishes in older females.

The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) ensures proper segregation of chromosomes by delaying anaphase onset until all kinetochores are properly attached to the spindle microtubules. Oocytes from the mouse strain LT/Sv arrest at the first meiotic metaphase (MI) due to, as reported recently, enormously prolonged activity of the SAC. We compared the dynamics of cyclin B1-GFP degradation, the process which is a measure of the SAC activity, in chromosomal and achromosomal halves of LT/Sv oocytes. In chromosome-containing oocyte halves arrested at MI, cyclin B1-GFP was not degraded indicating active SAC. However, in the halves lacking chromosomes, which is a condition precluding the SAC function, degradation always occurred confirming that MI arrest in LT/Sv oocytes is SAC dependent. Transferring the germinal vesicle (GV) from LT/Sv oocytes into the enucleated oocytes from wild-type mice resulted in the progression through meiosis one, indicating that a SAC-activating defect in LT/Sv oocytes is cytoplasmic, yet can be rescued by foreign cytoplasm. These results may help to define the etiology of the human infertility related to the oocyte MI arrest, indicating the involvement of the SAC as likely candidate, and point to GV transfer as the possible therapy. Finally, we found that majority of oocytes isolated from old LT/Sv mice complete the first meiosis. Reciprocal transfers of the GV between the oocytes from young and old LT/Sv females suggest that the factor(s) responsible for the reversal of the phenotype in oocytes from old mice is located both in the GV and in the cytoplasm.