Journal article
Embryo-endometrial interactions during early development after embryonic diapause in the marsupial tammar wallaby
Marilyn B Renfree, Geoff Shaw
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY | UNIV BASQUE COUNTRY UPV-EHU PRESS | Published : 2014
Abstract
The marsupial tammar wallaby has the longest period of embryonic diapause of any mammal. Reproduction in the tammar is seasonal, regulated by photoperiod and also lactation. Reactivation is triggered by falling daylength after the austral summer solstice in December. Young are born late January and commence a 9-10-month lactation. Females mate immediately after birth. The resulting conceptus develops over 6- 7 days to form a unilaminar blastocyst of 80-100 cells and enters lactationally, and later seasonally, controlled diapause. The proximate endocrine signal for reactivation is an increase in progesterone which alters uterine secretions. Since the diapausing blastocyst is surrounded by the..
View full abstractRelated Projects (3)
Grants
Funding Acknowledgements
Much of the work reviewed here was supported by grants to MBR and GS from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. We thank our many students and collaborators for their contributions to helping us understand the control of embryonic diapause in the tammar wallaby. We thank Elizabeth Pharo for assistance with the figures.