Summary
Mouse embryos were collected at the 2-cell stage, cultured in vitro in the presence of3H deoxyuridine or uridine for 6 or 4 h and autoradiographed.
Deoxyuridine is actively incorporated into the DNA of cleaving mouse embryos indicating the existence of thymidylate synthetase activity at least at the 4-cell stage and presumably already before this.
RNAase treatment of embryos squashed on slides shows a weak but obvious incorporation of uridine into DNA of cleaving mouse embryos, from the 4-cell stage onwards; this incorporation is totally inhibited by hydroxyurea. The reduction of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides is a metabolic pathway already required for cleavage, as shown by hydroxyurea experiments.
The second polar pody, known to incorporate thymidine, is unable to incorporate either deoxyuridine or uridine.
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Alexandre, H. Nucleic acid synthesis in preimplantation mouse embryos. Wilhelm Roux' Archiv 181, 193–202 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00848420
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00848420