A Xenopus protein related to hnRNP I has a role in cytoplasmic RNA localization

Cytoplasmic localization of mRNA molecules is a powerful mechanism for generating cell polarity. In vertebrates, one paradigm is localization of Vg1 RNA within the Xenopus oocyte, a process directed by recognition of a localization element within the Vg1 3' UTR. We show that specific base changes within the localization element abolish both localization in vivo and binding in vitro by a single protein, VgRBP60. VgRBP60 is homologous to a human hnRNP protein, hnRNP I, and combined immunolocalization and in situ hybridization demonstrate striking colocalization of hnRNP I and Vg1 RNA within the vegetal cytoplasm of the Xenopus oocyte. These results implicate a novel role in cytoplasmic RNA transport for this family of nuclear RNA-binding proteins.

Cleavage planes in frog eggs are altered by strong magnetic fields

Early cleavages of Xenopus embryos were oriented in strong, static magnetic fields. Third-cleavage planes, normally horizontal, were seen to orient to a vertical plane parallel with a vertical magnetic field. Second cleavages, normally vertical, could also be oriented by applying a horizontal magnetic field. We argue that these changes in cleavage-furrow geometries result from changes in the orientation of the mitotic apparatus. We hypothesize that the magnetic field acts directly on the microtubules of the mitotic apparatus. Considerations of the length of the astral microtubules, their diamagnetic anisotropy, and flexural rigidity predict the required field strength for an effect that agrees with the data. This observation provides a clear example of a static magnetic-field effect on a fundamental cellular process, cell division.

Localized maternal proteins in Xenopus revealed by subtractive immunization

It has long been appreciated that the localization of cytoplasmic determinants in the egg can provide the foundation for patterning in the embryo. Differences in cell fate among the early blastomeres are thus a consequence of asymmetric distributions of informational molecules prior to fertilization. The frog egg has a single axis of asymmetry present prior to fertilization, the animal/vegetal axis, and the localization of developmental information appears to be polarized along this axis. Such developmental information can be localized as either RNA or protein; localized RNAs are well documented in the Xenopus oocyte, and some are thought to play roles in axial patterning. While it is apparent that not all of the localized maternal components are RNAs, much less is known about maternal proteins that might be localized in the egg. In the present study, we have taken a novel approach to identify localized maternal proteins within the Xenopus egg. Using a subtractive immunization strategy, we have generated monoclonal antibodies which recognize antigens that are restricted to the vegetal cortex of fertilized eggs. Analysis of biogenesis during oogenesis reveals two distinct patterns of localization to the cortex. At least three of these localized antigens are proteins, and these localized proteins could represent maternal determinants with roles in patterning.

Stable magnetic field gradient levitation of Xenopus laevis: toward low-gravity simulation

We have levitated, for the first time, living biological specimens, embryos of the frog Xenopus laevis, using a large inhomogeneous magnetic field. The magnetic field/field gradient product required for levitation was 1430 kG2/cm, consistent with the embryo's susceptibility being dominated by the diamagnetism of water and protein. We show that unlike any other earth-based technique, magnetic field gradient levitation of embryos reduces the body forces and gravity-induced stresses on them. We discuss the use of large inhomogeneous magnetic fields as a probe for gravitationally sensitive phenomena in biological specimens.

Deep cytoplasmic rearrangements in ventralized Xenopus embryos

Following fertilization in Xenopus, dramatic rearrangements of the egg cytoplasm relocalize maternally synthesized egg components. During the first cell cycle the vegetal yolk mass rotates relative to the egg surface, toward the sperm entry point (SEP) (J. P. Vincent, G. F. Oster, and J. C. Gerhart, 1986, Dev. Biol. 113, 484-500), while concomitant deep cytoplasmic rearrangements occur in the animal hemisphere (M. V. Danilchik and J. M. Denegre, 1991, Development 111, 845-856). In this paper we examine the role of vegetal yolk mass rotation in producing the animal cytoplasmic rearrangements. We inhibited rotation by uv-irradiating embryos during the first cell cycle, a treatment that yields an extremely ventralized phenotype. Both uv-irradiated embryos and unirradiated control embryos show cytoplasmic rearrangements in the animal hemisphere during the first cell cycle. Cytoplasmic rearrangements on the SEP side of the embryo associated with the path of the sperm pronucleus, plus a swirl on the anti-SEP (dorsal) side, are seen, whether or not yolk mass rotation has occurred. This result suggests a role for the expanding sperm aster in directing animal hemisphere cytoplasmic movements. In unirradiated control embryos the anti-SEP (dorsal) swirl is larger than that in uv-irradiated embryos and often extends into the vegetal hemisphere, consistent with the animal cytoplasm having been pulled dorsally and vegetally by the sliding vegetal yolk mass. Thus the yolk mass rotation may normally enhance the dorsalward cytoplasmic movement, begun by the sperm aster, enough to induce normal axis formation. We extended our observations of unirradiated control and uv-irradiated embryos through early cleavages. The vegetal extent of the anti-SEP (dorsal) swirl pattern seen in control embryos persists through the early cleavage period, such that labeled animal cytoplasm extends deep into dorsal third-tier blastomeres at the 32-cell stage. Significantly, in uv-irradiated embryos, which have not undergone vegetal rotation, most of this labeled material remains more equatorial.

Deep cytoplasmic rearrangements in axis-respecified Xenopus embryos

In fertilized eggs of the frog Xenopus, the vegetal yolk mass rotates away from the future dorsal side (J. P. Vincent and J. Gerhart, 1987, Dev. Biol. 123, 526-539), and a major rearrangement of the deep animal hemisphere cytoplasm produces a characteristic swirl in the prospective dorsal side (M. V. Danilchik and J. M. Denegre, 1991, Development 111, 845-856). The relationship between this swirl and determination of the dorsal-ventral axis was further investigated by attempting to experimentally separate the positions of the swirl and the dorsal-ventral axis. Eggs were obliquely oriented in the gravity field to respecify the direction of yolk mass rotation and the position of the dorsal-ventral axis. When yolk mass rotation occurred in the absence of a sperm, as in activated eggs, a swirl pattern formed on the side away from which the yolk mass had rotated. In fertilized eggs tipped with the sperm entry point (SEP) down or to the side, swirl patterns were always found to form on the side away from which the yolk mass was displaced. However, in eggs tipped SEP up, in which the yolk mass was forced to rotate away from the SEP, more complicated rearrangements were observed in addition to the rotation-oriented swirl. Because the direction of yolk mass rotation was found to be influenced by both gravity and the actual position of the SEP in obliquely oriented eggs (SEP to the side), such complicated rearrangement patterns may result from opposing forces generated by both yolk mass rotation and the expanding sperm aster. Thus, except in cases in which the influences of SEP position and unit gravity opposed each other, it was not possible to experimentally separate the position of the deep cytoplasmic swirl from the direction of yolk mass rotation, and therefore the position of the prospective dorsal side.

Deep cytoplasmic rearrangements during early development in Xenopus laevis

The egg of the frog Xenopus is cylindrically symmetrical about its animal-vegetal axis before fertilization. Midway through the first cell cycle, the yolky subcortical cytoplasm rotates 30 degrees relative to the cortex and plasma membrane, usually toward the side of the sperm entry point. Dorsal embryonic structures always develop on the side away from which the cytoplasm moves. Details of the deep cytoplasmic movements associated with the cortical rotation were studied in eggs vitally stained during oogenesis with a yolk platelet-specific fluorescent dye. During the first cell cycle, eggs labelled in this way develop a complicated swirl of cytoplasm in the animal hemisphere. This pattern is most prominent on the side away from which the vegetal yolk moves, and thus correlates in position with the prospective dorsal side of the embryo. Although the pattern is initially most evident near the egg's equator or marginal zone, extensive rearrangements associated with cleavage furrowing (cytoplasmic ingression) relocate portions of the swirl to vegetal blastomeres on the prospective dorsal side.