scholarly journals FURTHER STUDIES ON CELL DIVISION WITHOUT MITOTIC APPARATUS IN SEA URCHIN EGGS

1965 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Hiramoto
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Sucrose Solution ◽  
Mitotic Apparatus ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs ◽  
Paraffin Oil

A large quantity of paraffin oil, sucrose solution, or sea water was injected into the eggs of the heart urchin Clypeaster japonicus shortly before the onset of the first cleavage. The injected oil became spherical, pushing the mitotic apparatus aside. The sucrose solution mixed with the protoplasm and caused disintegration of the mitotic apparatus, and the sea water formed a vacuole at the center of the cell. In all these cases, cleavage may take place almost normally in spite of the absence of the mitotic apparatus or its displacement within the cell. In some eggs, furrowing may take place when more than fifty per cent of the endoplasm has been replaced with sea water before onset of cleavage.

scholarly journals Effects of caffeine and other methylxanthines on the development and metabolism of sea urchin eggs. Involvement of NADP and glutathione.

1976 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Nath ◽  
J I Rebhun
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Reductase Activity ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Pentose Phosphate ◽  
Nad Kinase ◽  
Mitotic Apparatus ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs ◽  
Glutathione Reductase Activity

Methylxanthines (MX) inhibit cell division in sea urchin and clam eggs. This inhibitory effect is not mediated via cAMP. MX also inhibit respiration in marine eggs, at concentrations which inhibit cleavage. Studies showed that no changes occurred in ATP and ADP levels in the presence of inhibitory concentrations of MX, indicating an extra-mitochondrial site of action for the drug. Subsequent studies revealed decreased levels of NADP+ and NADPH, when eggs were incubated with inhibitory concentrations of MX, but no change in levels of NAD+ and NADH. MX did not affect the pentose phosphate shunt pathway and did not have any effect on the enzyme NAD+ -kinase. Further studies showed a marked inhibitory effect on the glutathione reductase activity of MX-treated eggs. Reduced glutathione (GSH) could reverse the cleavage inhibitory effect of MX. Moreover, diamide, a thiol-oxidizing agent specific for GSH in living cells, caused inhibition of cell division in sea urchin eggs. Diamide added to eggs containing mitotic apparatus (MA) could prevent cleavage by causing a dissolution of the formed MA. Both MX and diamide inhibit a Ca2+-activated ATPase in whole eggs. The enzyme can be reactivated by sulfhydryl reducing agents added in the assay mixture. In addition, diamide causes an inhibition of microtubule polymerization, reversible with dithioerythritol. All experimental evidence so far suggests that inhibition of mitosis in sea urchin eggs by MX is mediated by perturbations of the in vivo thiol-disulfide status of target systems, with a primary effect on glutathione levels.

scholarly journals THE RELATION BETWEEN THE ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF THE EXTERNAL MEDIUM AND THE RATE OF CELL DIVISION IN SEA URCHIN EGGS

1923 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 807-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Lillie ◽  
Ware Cattell
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Cell Division ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
External Medium ◽  
Sugar Solution ◽  
Cleavage Rate ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs

Dilution of sea water with isotonic sugar solution leaves the rate of cleavage of Arbacia eggs almost unchanged until the proportion of sea water is decreased to 20 or 25 volumes per cent. From this point cleavage becomes progressively slower with further dilution. Many eggs fail to cleave at dilutions of 5 to 6 volumes per cent. No cleavage occurs in 2 volumes per cent sea water or in pure sugar solution. Eggs returned from these media to sea water resume cleavage and development. There is thus no relation between the rate of cleavage and the electrical conductivity of the medium, except possibly within the range of dilutions from 20 to 5 volumes per cent sea water. In this range cleavage rate decreases as conductivity decreases, but the relation is not a linear one.

scholarly journals AN INDIRECT METHOD TO ASSAY FOR MITOTIC CENTERS IN SAND DOLLAR (DENDRASTER EXCENTRICUS) EGGS

1966 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans A. Went
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Early Prophase ◽  
Sand Dollar ◽  
Normal Pattern ◽  
Mitotic Apparatus ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs ◽  
Dendraster Excentricus ◽  
Normal Controls

It is possible consistently to induce sea urchin and sand dollar eggs to cleave directly from one cell into four cells. This is done by exposing the fertilized eggs to benzimidazole for 20 to 30 min beginning about early metaphase. The mitotic apparatus regresses, the cells do not cleave, and shortly after they are returned to normal sea water an early-prophase-appearing nucleus is present in each cell. Each cell then organizes a tetrapolar tetrahedral mitotic apparatus de novo, instead of transforming a bipolar mitotic apparatus into a tetrapolar figure, and cleaves one-to-four. In another type of experiment, it appears that sand dollar eggs exposed to mercaptoethanol during the first period of mitotic center duplication have only half as many centers by first cleavage metaphase as the normal controls. This is consistent with an earlier report by Mazia et al (1960). Using this same experimental technique, it was demonstrated that benzimidazole, on the contrary, does not interfere with mitotic center duplication in sand dollar eggs. A labeling experiment demonstrated that benzimidazole does not interfere markedly with the normal pattern of incorporation of C14-thymidine into the DNA of sea urchin eggs. The data reported here suggest that judicious treatment of sand dollar eggs (and probably sea urchin eggs, too) with benzimidazole can induce the eggs to cleave into as many cells as there were mitotic centers sometime earlier, for example at early metaphase of the first cleavage division. This provides a very useful tool for studies on the process of mitotic center duplication.

Cytasters induced within unfertilized sea-urchin eggs

1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-189
Author(s):  
R. Kuriyama ◽  
G.G. Borisy
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Light And Electron Microscopy ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs ◽  
Microtubule Organizing Centres ◽  
Treatment Step

Conditions that induce the formation of asters in unfertilized sea-urchin eggs have been investigated. Monasters were formed by treatment of eggs with acidic or basic sea-water, or procaine- or thymol-containing sea-water. A second treatment step, incubation with D2O-containing, ethanol-containing or hypertonic sea-water induced multiple cytasters. The number and size of cytasters varied according to the concentration of agents and duration of the first and second treatments, and also upon the species of eggs and the season in which the eggs were obtained. Generally, a longer second treatment or a higher concentration of the second medium resulted in a higher number of cytasters per egg. Asters were isolated and then examined by light and electron microscopy. Isolated monasters apparently lacked centrioles, whereas cytasters obtained from eggs undergoing the two-step treatment contained one or more centrioles. Up to eight centrioles were seen in a single aster; the centrioles appeared to have been produced during the second incubation. Centrospheres prepared from isolated asters retained the capacity to nucleate the formation of microtubules in vitro as assayed by light and electron microscopy. Many microtubules radiated from the centre of isolated asters, whether they contained centrioles or not. This observation is consistent with many other reports that microtubule-organizing centres need not contain centrioles.

scholarly journals CHANGES IN THE POTASSIUM CONTENT OF SEA URCHIN EGGS ON FERTILIZATION

1951 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Monroy Oddo ◽  
Maria Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Paracentrotus Lividus ◽  
Potassium Content ◽  
Minimum Point ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs ◽  
Maximum Loss ◽  
Arbacia Lixula

In the eggs of Arbacia lixula and Paracentrotus lividus an uptake of K occurs during the first 10 minutes following fertilization. Between 10 and 40 minutes K is then released. Both in Arbacia and in Paracentrotus the minimum point of the curve coincides with the nuclear streak stage. A maximum loss of 25 per cent in Arbacia and 20 per cent in Paracentrotus with respect to the amount present in the unfertilized eggs has been found. From 40 minutes up to 1 hour K undergoes a further increase and when the first cleavage sets in the same amount of K is present as in the unfertilized eggs. By treating the eggs with K-free artificial sea water it has been established that about 60 per cent of the K content of the eggs is in a non-diffusible condition. Also under such conditions the eggs when fertilized are able to take up even the very small amount of K present in the medium that was released by them prior to fertilization.

scholarly journals A Quantitative Description of Protoplasmic Movement During Cleavage in the Sea-Urchin Egg

1958 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-424
Author(s):  
Y. HIRAMOTO
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Quantitative Description ◽  
Motive Force ◽  
Mitotic Apparatus ◽  
Band Theory ◽  
Cytoplasmic Granules ◽  
Carbon Particles ◽  
Sea Urchin Egg ◽  
Protoplasmic Movement

1. Protoplasmic movements during cleavage in the eggs of the heart-urchin Clypeaster japonicus have been followed by tracing the movements of cytoplasmic granules and of carbon particles adhering to the surface. 2. These movements are quantitatively described in normal eggs and in eggs whose mitotic apparatus has been destroyed by colchicine. 3. The results obtained are qualitatively similar to those obtained by Spek and by Dan and his collaborators. 4. Endoplasmic movement and changes in the length and shape of the astral rays are readily explained by the contracting-ring (band) theory. 5. The location of the motive force of cell division is discussed.

Some Experiments on Sea-urchin Eggs with Desoxynucleic Acids from Sea-urchin Sperms

Development ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-262
Author(s):  
Sven Hörstadius
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Sea Urchin ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Dark Field ◽  
The Other ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Sea Urchin Eggs ◽  
King's College ◽  
Fertilization Membrane

Dr. I. Joan Lorch, of King's College, London, and I have made some experiments on sea-urchin eggs with desoxynucleic acids (DNA) prepared from sperms of several sea-urchin species by Professor Erwin Chargaff, of Columbia University, New York. Unfertilized eggs did not react when put into a solution of DNA in sea-water. Injection of a small amount of DNA dissolved in Callan's solution had the following consequences. If the DNA did not mix with the cytoplasm but remained as a distinct droplet, the egg could be fertilized. The droplet moved slowly towards the surface and ran out of the egg. This sometimes only occurred after several cleavages. Such eggs developed normally. If, on the other hand, the DNA mixed with the cytoplasm the egg became activated. A fertilization membrane was raised. The surface layer in dark field changed in colour from yellow to white as is the case upon fertilization.

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