Contents -- Contributors -- Abbreviations -- 1. Follicle Development in Vitro -- 2. Preparation of Gametes, in Vitro Maturation, in Vitro Fertilization, and Embryo Recovery and Transfer -- 3. Culture of the Mammalian Preimplantation Embryo -- 4. Assessment of Preimplantation Embryo Development and Viability -- 5. Micromanipulation of Gametes -- 6. Micromanipulation: Biopsy -- 7. Analysis of Intracellular Ions in Embryos: pH and Calcium -- 8. Assessment of Nutrient Uptake, Metabolite Production, and Enzyme Activity -- 9. Metabolic Pathway Activity -- 10. Confocal Imaging of Structural Molecules in Mammalian Gametes -- 11. Fluorescent in situ Hybridisation for Detection of Aneuploidy in Single Human Blastomeres for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis -- 12. Assessment of Ploidy, Telomere Length, and Telomerase Activity in Oocytes and Embryos -- 13. Microscale RNA Isolation from Mammalian Embryos -- 14. Relative mRNA Transcript Abundance in Early Embryos by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction -- 15. Characterization of Novel Genes during Early Development by Application of Differential Display RT-PCR -- 16. Two-Dimensional Protein Gel Database Analysis of Embryos, Oocytes, and Oocyte-Associated Granulosa Cells -- 17. Antisense Disruption of Gene Expression in the Preimplantation Embryo -- 18. Gene Subtraction and Analysis -- 19. Analysis of Apoptosis in the Preimplantation Embryo -- 20. Cytoplasmic Signaling and Cell Cycle Control in the Mouse Egg and Embryo -- 21. Human Embryonic Stem Cells -- 22. Spermatogonial Transplantation -- 23. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer -- 24. Cryobiology: Slow Freezing Vitrification of Embryos -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- Z.