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Vegetalization of Sea Urchin Larvae Induced with Cycloheximide
Author(s) -
YOSHIMI TAKAHITO,
YASUMASU IKUO
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
development, growth and differentiation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1440-169X
pISSN - 0012-1592
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-169x.1981.00137.x
Subject(s) - cycloheximide , chromatin , embryo , human fertilization , biology , andrology , fertilisation , protein biosynthesis , sea urchin , embryogenesis , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , genetics , dna , medicine , reproductive technology
The embryos, kept at 20°C for 3 hr–6 hr from the time of fertilization (at the morula stage), were cultured in sea water containing cycloheximide (10–16 mM) for successive 3 hr and then transferred to normal sea water. The embryos, thus treated, became vegetalized larvae. With the same treatment performed at a developmental stage prior to 3 hr of fertilization, most of embryos developed to small blastulae filled with mesenchyme‐like cells. The treatment at a stage after 6 hr of fertilization yielded normal plutei. From the embryos exposed to both 14 C‐leucine and 3 H‐thymidine during the treatment, labelled chromatin was isolated. Only in the presumptive vegetalized embryos obtained by the cycloheximide treatment of morulae, ratio of 14 C‐radioactivity found in proteins of chromatin to 3 H‐radioactivity in DNA was markedly lower than that observed in chromatin from control embryos. The rate of 3 H‐radioactivity‐decrease by DNase I treatment was higher in chromatin isolated from the presumptive regetalized embryos than that observed in chromatin isolated from control ones. Probable failure of chromatin structure formation, due to cycloheximide‐inhibition of chromatin protein synthesis, seems to disturb the determination in the embryos at the morula stage, resulting in an induction of vegetalized embryos.