Bioscientifica Proceedings

The European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was the first mammal in which embryonic diapause has been described. While diapause is characterized by a complete developmental arrest in some species, roe deer blastocysts show a very slow, yet continuous growth. To date, it is neither known whether this growth is accompanied by developmental progression nor whether it is uniform in both, the trophectoderm (TE) and the inner cell mass (ICM). We collected roe deer blastocysts during...