UV-induced DNA repair is not detectable in pre-dictyate oocytes of the mouse

Oocytes from fetal and neonatal mice were UV-irradiated, cultured in medium containing tritiated thymidine and analysed following autoradiography. As previously reported irradiated dictyate cells clearly displayed an increased grain count. However we detected no UV-induced response in oocytes at the leptotene, zygotene or pachytene stages of meiosis. This contrasts with the situation in spermatogenesis where high levels of repair can be induced in equivalent early prophase stages.