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ovum
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ovum

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The structure of the female gamete, the ovum. The germinal spot is the nucleolus of the ovum.

Female gamete (sex cell) before fertilization. In mammals it is called an egg, and is produced by a special cell division called meiosis in the ovaries during the menstrual cycle. In plants, where it is also known as an egg cell or oosphere, the ovum is produced in an ovule. The ovum does not move by itself. It must be fertilized by a male gamete before it can develop further, except in cases of parthenogenesis.



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The latter procedure removes the nucleus of a somatic cell and transfers it to an enucleated egg cell.
In this technology, an egg cell donated by a woman--not a new embryo, but a cell with no full human genome and no chance of becoming a person--would have its nucleus removed and a nucleus from a patient put in its place.
The fertilized egg cell begins to divide and grow to become a blastocyst (ball of about 100 cells), then an embryo, and finally a fetus (unborn animal eight weeks after fertilization).
 
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