Mouse oocyte,a paradigm of cancer cell

Oocytes undergo extremely asymmetric divisions in terms of size. Coordinating spindle assembly and positioning in the absence of canonical centrosomes appears to be a challenge for oocytes, which divide with an elevated rate of errors in chromosome segregation. Here we highlight recent work on the characteristics of oocyte meiotic divisions, giving special emphasis on MTOCs clustering, generation of aneuploidy, and cortex softening, properties shared by cancer cells. While the loss of canonical centrosomes in oocytes might favor the asymmetry in size of meiotic divisions by reducing the distance between spindle poles and the cortex, we propose that this acentrosomal pathway might also render meiotic spindles less robust and, so, be responsible for the high error rate of female meiosis.