The reaction time of organ-forming substance in goldfish EGG and its relationship with mesodermal formation

Abstract

Fertilized goldfish eggs were dechorionated with a pair of forceps and were cut off along or a little above the equator into animal and vegetative parts at desired stages with a glass needle or ligated into two connected fragments before cleavage with baby hair loop. Some of the ligated eggs were detached by further fastening soon after ligation, and some released later at different stages (2-cell, 16-cell, 128-cell, 512-cell, mid-blastula) to let the organ-forming substance (OFS) enter the blastoderm. The cholinesterase (ChE) in the resulting embryos was assayed. The results are as follows. 1. All the 142 embryos developed from the animal hemispheres cut off or ligated off before cleavage gave rise to hyperblastula in which no ChE activity was observed. 2. All 50 embryos obtained from animal halves isolated at the 8-cell stage produced ChE. 3. Embryos developed from the eggs released before the 512-cell stage formed ChE, but the later the releasing of the hair knots, the smaller the number of ChE-producing embryos. 4. After the 512-cell stage (excluding this stage), neither ChE nor tissue differentiation occurred in the embryos developed from the unfastened eggs though their OFS flow was set free. Since ChE is thought to be a muscle-specific enzyme in the early developmental stage, it is concluded that the OFS in goldfish egg appears to be indispensable for the establishment of the mesoderm.