The influence of the nucleus on sequential determination in frog ectoderm following induction by lithium ion
It appears certain that the process of cellular differentiation is an outcome of interactions between the cell nucleus and cell cytoplasm. Differentiation of embryonic amphibian ectoderm involves two fairly distinct phases: during the first short period an inductor (or some intrinsic factor, if an inductor is absent) determines the course of future differentiation in a multipotential cell; during the second, longer interval of time presumably a complex sequence of reactions leads to physiological and morphological differentiation. Little is known about the nature of reactions which take place during the first phase when the cells become developmentally determined by the inductor. It appears that the first step in translation of the inductive instruction in the competent cell is accomplished during the first 2 or 3 h following the treatment with the inductor (Ansevin, 1966). The step is not actinomycin-sensitive (Ansevin, 1965), as was shown by cells that completely recovered after actinomycin treatment (in conditions when it was unlikely that they could have failed to take up some inhibitor).