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- A developing female reproductive cell which divides by meiosis into four haploid cells, forming one ovum that goes on to potentially become fertilized by a sperm cell and two to three polar bodies that subsequently degenerate.
- An oocyte is an ovum just before ovulation. It has been stimulated to complete the first meiotic division (it was arrested in the end of the first meiotic division at the birth of the person). The other daughter cell, call the first polar body, fragments and disintegrates. An oocyte begins the second meiotic division, and stops at metaphase. The oocyte may be fertilized by a sperm.
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