What is the Meaning & Definition of Oogenesis

The term oogenesis comes from ovary. This means that the word that we are discussing has a direct relationship with fertilization and therefore part of the embryology as a scientific discipline.

The ovaries

They are the female gonadal organs that are found in pairs in the abdomen, on the side of the uterus and in the lower area with respect to the fallopian tubes. The ovaries have several functions: help the maturation and oocyte production, i.e., germ cells female and, at the same time, involved in the production of estrogens (female hormones that produce secondary sex characteristics).
In the ovaries should distinguish two parts, Medulla and cortex. The medulla of ovary has arteries and veins, as well as connective tissue. There are follicles in the cortex and each follicle contains an egg. The oocyte is the female germ cell and has multiple stages of development (the primary oocyte is gradually maturing to produce ovulation).

The oogenesis

The oogenesis is the process of formation of eggs and begins the third month of fetal development in the ovary cells called oogonia, which are non-differentiated sex cells. Most of the immature ova disappear before puberty (approximately between 10 and 12 years) and only a few hundred of them will mature in comprehensive way in the ovaries. In these organs oogonia reduce by half the number of chromosomes and are mature eggs, which are already in a position to join a sperm in the fertilisation.
Therefore, the oogenesis is the process by which are formed and the female gametes (ova) are different. For the egg to mature properly is necessary a series of physiological changes: in a first phase the oogonium enters a period of growth that lasts seven days and then the egg from first order is transformed into an egg of the first order, in the next phase enters the first meiotic division and generates two cells (a large (, the oocyte of second order, and the first polar lobe, which has one smaller size) and a new meiotic division occurs in the aftermath. Thus, in each division the cellular material is divided into unequal parts.
The female oogenesis corresponds to an equivalent process in males, spermatogenesis. Both transformations form the biological processes involved in fertilization.