egg cell

Also known as ovum, egg, eggs

haploid female reproductive cell or gamete

AI overview

An egg cell is the female reproductive cell that contains half the genetic information needed to create a new organism. It matters because when an egg cell combines with a sperm cell during fertilization, the two halves come together to form a complete genetic blueprint for a developing baby.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Research

118,573 papers

The egg of Xenopus laevis: a model system for studying cell activation.ReviewCell differentiation and development : the official journal of the International Society of Developmental Biologists · 1989Charbonneau M, Grandin NDOI: 10.1016/0922-3371(89)90045-2
Cell cycle in egg cell and its progression during zygotic development in rice.Plant reproduction · 2018Sukawa Y, Okamoto TDOI: 10.1007/s00497-017-0318-x
Recovery of Sea Star Egg Cell Surface Proteins Released at Fertilization.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2021Wiseman E, Bates L, Carroll DJDOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0974-3_9
The Florey lecture, 1988. From egg to embryo: the initiation of cell differentiation in Amphibia.ReviewProceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 1989Gurdon JBDOI: 10.1098/rspb.1989.0033
Electrical properties of egg cell membranes.ReviewAnnual review of biophysics and bioengineering · 1979Hagiwara S, Jaffe LADOI: 10.1146/annurev.bb.08.060179.002125
SnapShot: Human sperm-egg interface proteins.Cell · 2025Forster E, Wang X, Thayaparan A et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.01.001
From egg to pole cells: ultrastructural aspects of early cleavage and germ cell determination in insects.ReviewMicroscopy research and technique · 1992Zissler DDOI: 10.1002/jemt.1070220106
EGG-3 regulates cell-surface and cortex rearrangements during egg activation in Caenorhabditis elegans.Current biology : CB · 2007Maruyama R, Velarde NV, Klancer R et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.08.011

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Wikidata facts

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Article

Human egg cell The egg cell or ovum (pl.: ova) is the female reproductive cell, or gamete, in most anisogamous organisms (organisms that reproduce sexually with a larger, female gamete and a smaller, male one). The term is used when the female gamete is not capable of movement (non-motile). If the male gamete (sperm) is capable of movement, the type of sexual reproduction is also classified as oogamous. A nonmotile female gamete formed in the oogonium of some algae, fungi, oomycetes, or bryophytes is an oosphere. When fertilized, the oosphere becomes the oospore.

When egg and sperm fuse together during fertilisation, a diploid cell (the zygote) is formed, which rapidly grows into a new organism.