Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology

, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp 263–272 | Cite as

Cytoplasmic regionalization in starfish oocyte occurrence and localization of cytoplasmic determinants responsible for the formation of archenteron and primary mesenchyme in starfish (asterias amurensis) oocytes

  • Zhang Shicui
  • Wu Xianhan
  • Zhou Jing
  • Wang Renxue
  • Wu Shangqin
Article
Received:

Abstract

Starfish oocytes with intact germinal vesicles (GVs) were cut along desired planes with glass needles or ligated using silk thread loops into two parts and allowed to mature in vitro, and inseminated. The experimental results showed that (1) only the parts with GVs or partial GV contents (PGVCs) cleaved, those without any GV materials did not; but nucleated and non-nucleated fragments cut from mature eggs were able to divide; (2) the development of animal parts of oocytes containing GVs or PGVCs was like that of animal fragments of matured oocytes with female pronuclei; most of them gave rise to permanent blastulae, and just a few formed ectodermal vesicles with a little primary mesenchyme; (3) a large part of vegetal fragments with GVs or PGVCs, and the vegetal parts of mature eggs without female pronuclei developed into small but normal embryos; (4) the fragments containing GVs or PGVCs obtained from the oocytes along a plane parallel to the animal-vegetal (A-V) axis developed as normally as the halves (with or without female pronuclei) severed from mature eggs along the same axis. Based on the data above, it was concluded that (1) the non-chromatin materials in the oocyte GVs are indispensable for successful fertilization and cleavage of starfish eggs; (2) some factor (s) located asymmetrically in the vegetal hemispheres of starfish oocytes is (are) responsible for formation of the archenteron and primary mesenchyme. It is evident from the above findings that the oocyte cytoplasm of the starfish had already regionalized before the GV break-down.

Keywords

Germinal Vesicle Germ Plasm Immature Oocyte Oocyte Cytoplasm Female Pronucleus 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Science Press 1990

Authors and Affiliations

  • Zhang Shicui
    • 1
  • Wu Xianhan
    • 1
  • Zhou Jing
    • 1
  • Wang Renxue
    • 1
  • Wu Shangqin
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute of OceanologyAcademia SinicaQingdao

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