scholarly journals Chromosomes and Nucleoli of the Axolotl, Ambystoma Mexicanum

1966 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108
Author(s):  
H. G. CALLAN
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Nuclear Periphery ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosome ◽  
Ambystoma Mexicanum ◽  
Oocyte Nucleus ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Mitotic Chromosomes ◽  
Nucleolar Material ◽  
Secondary Constrictions

Amongst the axolotl's haploid complement of fourteen mitotic chromosomes, one of the four largest, with a greater arm asymmetry than the other three, shows a nucleolar constriction subterminally in its shorter arm. Low-temperature treatment causes further secondary constrictions to appear; these constrictions enable most of the mitotic chromosomes to be identified; the constrictions occur at similar sites in the chromosomes of tail-fin epithelial cells, hepatocytes, and brain cells. Homology between the mitotic and oocyte (lampbrush) nucleolar organizers has been established, and thus the several hundred free nucleoli in oocytes are genetically related to the two nucleoli of diploid somatic interphases. During oocyte development the free nucleoli transform from solid structures to rings and back to solid structures again without detectable increase in number. During the contraction and aggregation of the lampbrush chromosomes within the oocyte nucleus as maturity approaches, in most axolotls the free ring-shaped nucleoli become stretched between the nuclear periphery and central chromosome group, and take on a characteristic beaded appearance. These transformations of the free nucleoli are largely paralleled by forms which nucleoli attached subterminally to the shorter arm of lampbrush chromosome III concurrently assume. The question as to whether fully developed nucleoli detach from the organizer loci and add to the population of free nucleoli in oocytes remains undecided. It may well be that virtually all the DNA-generators of free nucleoli detach from the organizer loci before starting to carry out nucleolar functions, and before there is any significant accumulation of protein and RNA around them. If so, the variability in quantity of attached nucleolar material may not reflect different states in a nucleolar synthesis and detachment cycle, but rather variation in the number of nucleolar DNA Anlagen which happen to remain attached to the organizer loci after the synthesis and detachment of the great majority of the Anlagen has ceased. In occasional oocytes the only chromosomal continuity maintained across the organizer locus consists of a nucleolar ‘double bridge’; this indicates that the genetically persistent (i.e. chromosomal) organizer DNA bears the same structural relationship to neighbouring parts of a lampbrush chromosome as any other chromomere with its attendant pair of lateral loops. The lampbrush chromosomes of the axolotl have been provisionally mapped. The centromeres are represented by short portions of chromosome axis without lateral loops, and there are two spheres close to the centromeres of both chromosome VI and chromosome XIII. Other recognition characters are inconspicuous or not very reliable, and features of the lampbrush chromosomes related to the low-temperature induced secondary constrictions of mitotic chromosomes have not been identified.

Proteins of the newt oocyte nucleus: analysis of the nonhistone proteins from lampbrush chromosomes, nucleoli and nuclear sap

1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-588
Author(s):  
K. Maundrell
Keyword(s):  
Total Protein ◽  
Electrophoretic Analysis ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosome ◽  
Chromosome Preparation ◽  
Oocyte Nucleus ◽  
Protein Species ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Banding Patterns ◽  
Nonhistone Proteins

An electrophoretic analysis has been carried out on the total protein of lampbrush chromosomes, nucleoli and nuclear sap, obtained from newt oocyte nuclei. In each case, distinctive and heterogeneous banding patterns are observed. The absence of detectable quantities of histones in occyte chromatin is noted. In the case of the lampbrush chromosome preparation, it is concluded that all protein species are derived from the ribonucleoprotein matrix of the lateral loops.

Immunolocalization of three oocyte nuclear proteins during oogenesis and embryogenesis in Pleurodeles

Development ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-728
Author(s):  
C. Abbadie ◽  
D. Boucher ◽  
J. Charlemagne ◽  
J.C. Lacroix
Keyword(s):  
Adult Development ◽  
Nuclear Proteins ◽  
Oocyte Nucleus ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Mitotic Chromosomes ◽  
Midblastula Transition ◽  
Adult Age ◽  
Young Embryo ◽  
Stock Pile ◽  
Oocyte Nuclear Proteins

The location of three proteins of the oocyte nucleus of Pleurodeles was studied during oogenesis and embryogenesis using monoclonal antibodies A33/22, C3/1 and C36/1. Immunoblotting of two-dimensional gel electrophoregrams of oocyte nuclear proteins showed that these antibodies recognized proteins whose relative molecular masses and isoelectric points were 80×103 and 6á4, 175×103 and 5 and 270×103 and 7, respectively. In the oocyte, all three proteins were nucleoplasmic; those revealed by antibodies A33/22 and C36/1 were detected on lampbrush chromosomes: the first one on the RNP matrix of the loops, and the second one on both the loops and the chromomeres. Protein A33/22 was observed in most nuclei during embryonic, larval and adult development, except for the young embryo, before the midblastula transition. The distribution of this protein in the oocyte and its behaviour during development suggest that it might be involved in the packaging of RNAs during transcription. Antibody C3/1 recognized an oocyte nucleoplasmic protein with biochemical and biophysical properties similar to those of protein N1-N2. After oocyte maturation, the protein moved into the cytoplasm of the animal hemisphere and, from fertilization to the midblastula stage, it shifted from the cytoplasm into the nuclei as cell division proceeded. Starting from the gastrula stage, this protein became specific to the endoderm nuclei. After hatching, it was no longer detectable. This behaviour seems to correspond to that of a nuclear protein issued from the maternal stock pile. Protein C36/1 behaved similarly during early development, but remained in most nuclei after neurulation until the adult age, with a pattern similar to that of protein A33/22. In addition, it was present on the mitotic chromosomes. Its association with mitotic as well as lampbrush chromosomes connects it with the DNP fibre proteins.

In situ hybridization to lampbrush chromosomes: a potential source of error exposed

1980 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-123
Author(s):  
H.G. Callan ◽  
R.W. Old
Keyword(s):  
Lampbrush Chromosome ◽  
Single Pair ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Triturus Cristatus ◽  
Rna Transcripts ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Source Of Error ◽  
Simple Sequence ◽  
Do So

Denatured 3H-labelled DNAs containing Xenopus or human globin sequences hybridize to RNA transcripts on a single pair of lateral loops on lampbrush chromosome IX of Triturus cristatus carnifex, and to no other loops on this chromosome or the rest of the complement. However they do so, not because of the globin sequences in the probes, but rather because the plasmids from which the probes were prepared were constructed with G.C homopolymer tails. Simple sequence poly d(C/G)n probes also hybridize with RNA transcripts on this same pair of loops, and with no others.

The Form of Bivalent Chromosomes in Newt Oocytes at First Metaphase of Meiosis

1963 ◽  
Vol s3-104 (66) ◽  
pp. 281-295
Author(s):  
I. D. WATSON ◽  
H. G. CALLAN
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Recombination ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Meiotic Metaphase ◽  
Gene Products ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Chiasma Localization

Lampbrush chromosomes in the ovarian oocytes of newts are associated as bivalents. Some connexions between lampbrush chromosomes are chiasmata; others are known to be fusions of gene products; yet others, namely reflected, centromere, and telomere fusions, do not appear to be due simply to the fusion of gene products. Whether chiasmata are involved in reflected, centromere, and telomere fusions cannot be decided from examination of the chromosomes at the lampbrush stage. Bivalents from oocytes at first meiotic metaphase were therefore studied. The oocytes of newts reach first meiotic metaphase after ovulation, whilst they are free in the coelome. Reflected, centromere, and the great majority of telomere fusions do not persist to first meiotic metaphase: thus chiasmata are not involved in them. In oocyte bivalents of Triturus helveticus chiasmata are not restricted in their distribution, whereas in spermatocyte bivalents of this species chiasmata are proterminally localized. In oocyte bivalents of 3 subspecies of T. cristatus chiasmata are procentrically localized, whereas in spermatocyte bivalents of these subspecies chiasmata are not restricted in their distribution. Thus in T. helveticus meiosis in the female sex is mainly responsible for genetic recombination, whereas in T. cristatus the situation is reversed. We conclude that to base genetical and evolutionary inferences on information drawn from the meiosis of one sex only is unjustified, and we doubt the validity of the claim that chiasma localization has arisen so as to restrict genetic recombination.

An introduction to Programmes for Development

Development ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 83 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Herbert C. Macgregor ◽  
Alma P. Swan
Keyword(s):  
Oocyte Nucleus ◽  
Nuclear Chromatin ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Unicellular Alga ◽  
Complex Molecules ◽  
Animal Development ◽  
Initial Tendency ◽  
Dna Strand ◽  
Acetabularia Mediterranea ◽  
The University

The symposium of which this book is a record was first suggested in the autumn of 1982. At that time, all members of the BSDB committee were persons who were primarily concerned with studies of animal development, and the initial tendency was to think along these lines. The cytology laboratory in the University of Leicester has a long tradition in studies of the lampbrush chromosomes that are found in the growing oocytes of most animals as well as in certain stages of the life cycle of at least one simple plant, the giant unicellular alga Acetabularia mediterranea (Callan, 1982). At some stage in very early diplotene of oogenesis of an amphibian, the oocyte nucleus begins to enlarge and many regions of the nuclear chromatin begin to transcribe RNA. RNA polymerase molecules attach to hundreds of sites along the chromosomes and move progressively along the DNA strand, synthesizing long and complex molecules of RNA as they go.

The role of Lampbrush Chromosomes in the formation of Nucleoli in Amphibian Oocytes

1965 ◽  
Vol s3-106 (75) ◽  
pp. 215-228
Author(s):  
H. C. MACGREGOR
Keyword(s):  
Phase Contrast ◽  
Nucleolar Organizer ◽  
Plethodon Cinereus ◽  
Oocyte Nucleus ◽  
Lampbrush Chromosomes ◽  
Triturus Cristatus ◽  
Amphibian Oocyte ◽  
Ambystoma Jeffersonianum ◽  
And Function

Theories concerning the mode of origin of peripheral nucleoli in amphibian oocytes have been examined and tested. In Triturus cristatus the giant fusing loops of the 3 shortest lampbrush bivalents resemble nucleoli when viewed in phase contrast and may be considered as possible sites of production of nucleoli. Giant fusing loops, however, differ from peripheral nucleoli in certain important respects, and animals lacking giant fusing loops on their lampbrush chromosomes nevertheless have normal peripheral nucleoli. Therefore, similarity in appearance between objects attached to lampbrush chromosomes and free peripheral nucleoli may not be significant. In oocytes of T. c. carnifex, T. c. karelinii, and T. c. danubialis, peripheral nucleoli do not increase in number during the lampbrush phase of oogenesis, except by division of pre-existing nucleoli towards the end of oogenesis. There are about 1,000 nucleoli per oocyte nucleus in each of these sub-species. In T. c. cristatus there are more nucleoli in large oocytes than in small ones, and it seems likely that in this sub-species the giant fusing loops add to the existing population of nucleoli in an oocyte by successively growing and shedding new nucleoli. A similar situation probably holds in Plethodon cinereus. Hexaploid oocytes from triploid females of Ambystoma jeffersonianum have 3 times as many nucleoli as diploid oocytes from diploid females of the same species. The number of nucleoli in an amphibian oocyte nucleus is therefore related to the number of sets of chromosomes in the cell. In yolky oocytes from hypophysectomized newts most peripheral nucleoli are firmly attached to the inner surface of the nuclear membrane; whereas in similar oocytes from unoperated or gonadotrophin-treated animals none of the nucleoli is so attached. On the basis of these observations 2 mechanisms are suggested for the formation of amphibian oocyte nucleoli. The first of these mechanisms probably operates in T. c. carnifex, where all peripheral nucleoli are formed before or soon after the chromosomes assume the lampbrush form, and no part of a lampbrush chromosome is involved in a process which adds to the existing population of nucleoli. The second mechanism probably operates in T. c. cristatus, where most of the peripheral nucleoli are formed before the lampbrush phase of oogenesis but a nucleolar organizer on the lampbrush chromosomes continues to grow and detach nucleoli throughout oogenesis. Both these mechanisms are discussed in terms of what is known of the chemical composition and function of peripheral nucleoli.

Mitosis in the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces Pombe: A Comparative Study with Light and Electron Microscopy

1971 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. KATHLEEN McCULLY ◽  
C. F. ROBINOW
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Light Microscopy ◽  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Schizosaccharomyces Pombe ◽  
Light And Electron Microscopy ◽  
Metaphase Plate ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
Mitotic Chromosomes ◽  
Nucleolar Material ◽  
Differential Expansion

Mitosis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been followed in living cells by phase-contrast microscopy and studied in fixed and suitably stained preparations by light microscopy. Successful preservation of nuclear fine structure in this yeast, not previously achieved, has allowed us to confirm and extend the observations made with light microscopy. Without first arranging themselves on a metaphase plate, mitotic chromosomes become grouped in 2 clusters radiating, finger-like, from 2 points of attachment at opposite poles of an elongating nucleus. At these 2 sites electron microscopy reveals the presence of disk-shaped electron-dense organelles which we have called kinetochore equivalents (KCE). At mitosis the KCEs are connected across the nucleus by a narrow bundle of parallel microtubules which we refer to as the spindle. Integration of our observations has led us to propose that at mitosis the separation of the KCEs and their attached chromosomes is initiated by a differential expansion of the nuclear envelope restricted to the region between recently divided KCEs and that expansion of the nuclear envelope later becomes general, resulting in a marked elongation of the nucleus. Displacement of the nuclear contents to the ends of the elongated nucleus gives it the shape of a dumbbell. The elongation of the microtubule bundle keeps in step with the elongation of the nucleus but does not appear to be the cause of it. It may have the function of keeping the separated KCEs rigidly apart. During mitosis the nucleolus persists and stretches out within the unbroken envelope of the nucleus as it elongates. Towards the end of division equal amounts of nucleolar material are found in the rounded ends of the dumbbell-shaped nucleus. The break up of the dumbbell shape into daughter nuclei seems to involve the breaking of its tenuous middle part and a pivoting of its 2 ends in opposite directions. In the course of our work on mitosis we have become aware of features in the cytoplasm of growing S. pombe cells which are described here for the first time. The cells invariably contain several prominent vacuoles containing an extremely electron-dense material which stains metachromatically with toluidine blue and may be polyphosphate. The mitochondria are of special interest for 2 reasons. First, because they have unique mesosome-like membrane invaginations and secondly, because a mitochondrion is regularly associated with the single KCE by the side of the interphase nucleus, as well as with each one of the 2 KCEs that occupy opposite ends of the intranuclear spindle during mitosis.

Behaviour of ThSiO4 during hydrothermal alteration of raremetal rich lithologies from peralkaline rocks

2017 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 873-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Macdonald ◽  
B. Bagiński ◽  
P. M. Kartashov ◽  
D. Zozulya
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Hydrothermal Alteration ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Hydrothermal Fluids ◽  
Element Mobility ◽  
Limited Mobility ◽  
Fluid Infiltration ◽  
Geochemical Indicators ◽  
Structural Formulae

AbstractThe behaviour of ThSiO4 during low-temperature alteration has significance for element mobility and redistribution. Here we describe five types of alteration of ThSiO4 by hydrothermal fluids: (1) primary ThSiO4 associated with chevkinite-(Ce) in a quartz-epidote metasomatite; (2) during alteration of monazite-(Ce) in a quartzolite; (3) during alteration of fergusonite-(Y) in a quartz-epidote metasomatite; (4) following exsolution from chevkinite-(Ce); and (5) associated with cerite-(Ce) and with ilmenite and bastnäsite-(Ce) in late-stage veinlets in a syenitic pegmatite and a metasomatite. The great majority of crystals have been strongly altered compositionally, with variable degrees of replacement of formula elements by non-formula elements, such as Ca, Fe, P and REE. The most reliable geochemical indicators of hydrothermal alteration are low analytical totals and non-stoichiometric structural formulae. The alteration is variably ascribed to dissolution-reprecipitation and pervasive fluid infiltration along cracks. Thorium appears to have shown limited mobility in these samples.

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