What is "dictyate"

n. (context biology English) A resting stage in the development of oocytes, during the meiotic prophase

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 by the LH surge. 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.

In both mouse and human, oocyte DNA of older individuals has substantially more double-strand breaks than that of younger individuals.

The dictyate appears to be an adaptation for efficiently removing damages in germ line DNA by homologous recombinational repair.