Studies on Fertilization in Xenopus laevis

Studies on the DNA of Xenopus laevis oocytes.

The existence of substantial amounts of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the cytoplasm of amphibian eggs is no longer a matter of discussion (review, Brachet, 1957). However, their intracellular distribution, role and origin remain controversial. According to Dawid (1965, 1966), the bulk of the egg cytoplasmic DNA in Xenopus is of mitochondrial origin. His method of phenol extraction isolates onl...

Transmembrane Signal Transduction in Oocyte Maturation and Fertilization: Focusing on Xenopus laevis as a Model Animal

Fertilization is a cell biological phenomenon of crucial importance for the birth of new life in a variety of multicellular and sexual reproduction species such as algae, animal and plants. Fertilization involves a sequence of events, in which the female gamete "egg" and the male gamete "spermatozoon (sperm)" develop, acquire their functions, meet and fuse with each other, to initiate embryonic...

ترتیب اعصای جانبی در دم لارو of Xenopus laevis

Cortical grafting in Xenopus laevis.

T H E amphibian egg bears a cortex as the periphery of its cytoplasm. The interpretation by Dalcq & Pasteels (1937) of experiments performed by Pasteels (1938, 1940, 1941), in which fertile eggs of Rana fusca were centrifuged or inverted, led to the suggestion that the cortex possesses properties which control the course of development to some degree. It appeared that the properties of the cort...

Dicalcin inhibits fertilization through its binding to a glycoprotein in the egg envelope in Xenopus laevis.

Fertilization comprises oligosaccharide-mediated sperm-egg interactions, including sperm binding to an extracellular egg envelope, sperm penetration through the envelope, and fusion with an egg plasma membrane. We show that Xenopus dicalcin, an S100-like Ca(2+)-binding protein, present in the extracellular egg envelope (vitelline envelope (VE)), is a suppressive mediator of sperm-egg interactio...