Dictyate

The dictyate or dictyotene is a prolonged resting phase in oogenesis. It occurs in the stage of meiotic prophase I in ootidogenesis. It starts late in fetal life and is terminated shortly before ovulation. Thus, although the majority of oocytes are produced in female fetuses before birth, these pre-eggs remain arrested in the Dictyate stage until puberty commences and the cells complete ootidogenesis.

Translation halt
There is a lot of mRNA that has been transcribed but not translated during dictyate. Short before ovulation, the oocyte of interest activates these mRNA strains.

Biochemistry mechanism
Translation of mRNA in dictyate is partly explained by molecules binding to sites on the mRNA strain, which results in that initiation factors of translation can not bind to that site. Two such molecules, that impedes initiation factors, are CPEB and maskin, which bind to CPE (cytoplasmic polyadenylation element). When these two molecules remain together, then maskin can not bind to the initiation factor eIF-4E, and thus no translation occurs. On the other hand, dissolution of the CPEB/maskin complex leads to eIF-4E binding to the initiation factor eIF-4G, and thus translation starts, which contributes to the end of dictyate and further maturation of the oocyte.