The microtubule aster formation and its role in nuclear envelope assembly around the sperm chromatin inXenopus egg extracts

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (18) ◽  
pp. 1912-1918
Author(s):  
Ning Yang ◽  
Zhongcai Chen ◽  
Ping Lu ◽  
Chuanmao Zhang ◽  
Zhonghe Zhai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Sperm Chromatin ◽  
Egg Extracts ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly ◽  
Microtubule Aster

scholarly journals Induction of nuclear envelope breakdown, chromosome condensation, and spindle formation in cell-free extracts.

1985 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 518-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Lohka ◽  
J L Maller
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Chromosome Condensation ◽  
Sperm Chromatin ◽  
Spindle Formation ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Breakdown ◽  
Multipolar Spindles ◽  
Egg Extracts ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly ◽  
Pronuclear Formation

Incubation of demembranated sperm chromatin in cytoplasmic extracts of unfertilized Xenopus laevis eggs resulted in nuclear envelope assembly, chromosome decondensation, and sperm pronuclear formation. In contrast, egg extracts made with EGTA-containing buffers induced the sperm chromatin to form chromosomes or irregularly shaped clumps of chromatin that were incorporated into bipolar or multipolar spindles. The 150,000 g supernatants of the EGTA extracts could not alone support these changes in incubated nuclei. However, these supernatants induced not only chromosome condensation and spindle formation, but also nuclear envelope breakdown when added to sperm pronuclei or isolated Xenopus liver or brain nuclei that were incubated in extracts made without EGTA. Similar changes were induced by partially purified preparations of maturation-promoting factor. The addition of calcium chloride to extracts containing condensed chromosomes and spindles caused dissolution of the spindles, decondensation of the chromosomes, and re-formation of interphase nuclei. These results indicate that nuclear envelope breakdown, chromosome condensation, and spindle assembly, as well as the regulation of these processes by Ca2+-sensitive cytoplasmic components, can be studied in vitro using extracts of amphibian eggs.

scholarly journals Characterization of the membrane binding and fusion events during nuclear envelope assembly using purified components.

1992 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Newport ◽  
W Dunphy
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Membrane Vesicles ◽  
Sperm Chromatin ◽  
Chromosomal Dna ◽  
Free System ◽  
Nuclear Assembly ◽  
Egg Extracts ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly ◽  
Xenopus Egg

At the end of mitosis membrane vesicles are targeted to the surface of chromatin and fuse to form a continuous nuclear envelope. To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying these steps in nuclear envelope assembly, we have developed a defined cell-free system in which the binding and fusion steps in nuclear envelope assembly can be examined separately. We have found that extensively boiled Xenopus egg extracts efficiently promote the decondensation of demembranated Xenopus sperm chromatin. When isolated membranes are added to this decondensed chromatin a specific subfraction of membrane vesicles (approximately 70 nM in diameter) bind to the chromatin, but these vesicles do not fuse to each other. Vesicle binding is independent of ATP and insensitive to N-ethylmalamide. Quantitative analysis of these sites by EM suggests that there is at least one vesicle binding site per 100 kb of chromosomal DNA. We show by tryptic digestion that vesicle-chromatin association requires proteins on both the vesicle and on the chromatin. In addition, we show that the vesicles bound under these conditions will fuse into an intact nuclear envelope when incubated with the soluble fraction of a Xenopus egg nuclear assembly extract. With respect to vesicle fusion, we have found that vesicles prebound to chromatin will fuse to each other when ATP and GTP are present in the boiled extract. These results indicate that nuclear envelope assembly is mediated by a subset of approximately 70-nM-diam vesicles which bind to chromatin sites spaced 100 kb apart and that fusion of these vesicles is regulated by membrane-associated GTP-binding proteins.

scholarly journals Lamin activity is essential for nuclear envelope assembly in a Drosophila embryo cell-free extract.

1992 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Ulitzur ◽  
A Harel ◽  
N Feinstein ◽  
Y Gruenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Nuclear Membrane ◽  
Membrane Vesicles ◽  
Embryo Cell ◽  
Drosophila Embryo ◽  
Sperm Chromatin ◽  
Naked Dna ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly

The role of the Drosophila lamin protein in nuclear envelope assembly was studied using a Drosophila in vitro assembly system that reconstitutes nuclei from added sperm chromatin or naked DNA. Upon incubation of the embryonic assembly extract with anti-Drosophila lamin antibodies, the attachment of nuclear membrane vesicles to chromatin surface and nuclear envelope formation did not occur. Lamina assembly and nuclear membrane vesicles attachment to the chromatin were inhibited only when the activity of the 75-kD lamin isoform was inhibited in both soluble and membrane-vesicles fractions. Incubation of decondensed sperm chromatin with an extract that was depleted of nuclear membranes revealed the presence of lamin molecules on the chromatin periphery. In addition, high concentrations of bacterially expressed lamin molecules added to the extract, were able to associate with the chromatin periphery, and did not inhibit nuclear envelope assembly. After nuclear reconstitution, a fraction of the lamin pool was converted into the typical 74- and 76-kD isoforms. Together, these data strongly support an essential role of the lamina in nuclear envelope assembly.

scholarly journals Xenopus lamin B3 has a direct role in the assembly of a replication competent nucleus: evidence from cell-free egg extracts

1995 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 3451-3461 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Goldberg ◽  
H. Jenkins ◽  
T. Allen ◽  
W.G. Whitfield ◽  
C.J. Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Dna Replication ◽  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Nuclear Matrix ◽  
Nuclear Pore ◽  
Major Protein ◽  
Protein Species ◽  
Nuclear Pores ◽  
Thin Sections ◽  
Egg Extracts ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly

Xenopus egg extracts which assemble replication competent nuclei in vitro were depleted of lamin B3 using monoclonal antibody L6 5D5 linked to paramagnetic beads. After depletion, the extracts were still capable of assembling nuclei around demembranated sperm heads. Using field emission in lens scanning electron microscopy (FEISEM) we show that most nuclei assembled in lamin B3-depleted extracts have continuous nuclear envelopes and well formed nuclear pores. However, several consistent differences were observed. Most nuclei were small and only attained diameters which were half the size of controls. In a small number of nuclei, nuclear pore baskets, normally present on the inner aspect of the nuclear envelope, appeared on its outer surface. Finally, the assembly of nuclear pores was slower in lamin B3-depleted extracts, indicating a slower overall rate of nuclear envelope assembly. The results of FEISEM were confirmed using conventional TEM thin sections, where again the majority of nuclei assembled in lamin B3-depleted extracts had well formed double unit membranes containing a high density of nuclear pores. Since nuclear envelope assembly was mostly normal but slow in these nuclei, the lamin content of ‘depleted’ extracts was investigated. While lamin B3 was recovered efficiently from cytosolic and membrane fractions by our procedure, a second minor lamin isoform, which has characteristics similar to those of the somatic lamin B2, remained in the extract. Thus it is likely that this lamin is necessary for nuclear envelope assembly. However, while lamin B2 did not co-precipitate with lamin B3 during immunodepletion experiments, several protein species did specifically associate with lamin B3 on paramagnetic immunobeads. The major protein species associated with lamin B3 migrated with molecular masses of 102 kDa and 57 kDa, respectively, on one-dimensional polyacrylamide gels. On two-dimensional O'Farrell gels the mobility of the 102 kDa protein was identical to the mobility of a major nuclear matrix protein, indicating a specific association between lamin B3 and other nuclear matrix proteins. Nuclei assembled in lamin B3-depleted extracts did not assemble a lamina, judged by indirect immunofluorescence, and failed to initiate semi-conservative DNA replication. However, by reinoculating depleted extracts with purified lamin B3, nuclear lamina assembly and DNA replication could both be rescued. Thus it seems likely that the inability of lamin-depleted extracts to assemble a replication competent nucleus is a direct consequence of a failure to assemble a lamina.

Nuclear envelope assembly in Xenopus extracts visualized by scanning EM reveals a transport-dependent ‘envelope smoothing’ event

1997 ◽  
Vol 110 (13) ◽  
pp. 1489-1502 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Wiese ◽  
M.W. Goldberg ◽  
T.D. Allen ◽  
K.L. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Nuclear Pore ◽  
Nuclear Pore Complexes ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Egg Extracts ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly ◽  
Attachment Proteins ◽  
Scanning Em ◽  
Pore Complexes ◽  
Xenopus Egg Extracts

We analyzed the pathway of nuclear envelope assembly in Xenopus egg extracts using field emission in-lens scanning electron microscopy. The binding, fusion, and flattening of vesicles onto the chromatin surface were visualized in detail. The first nuclear pore complexes assembled in flattened patches of nuclear envelope, before the chromatin was fully enclosed by membranes. Confirming previous transmission electron microscope observations, two morphologically distinct types of vesicles contributed to the nuclear membranes: ribosome-carrying (‘rough’) vesicles, many of which bound directly to chromatin, and ‘smooth’ vesicles, which appeared to associate primarily with other nuclear vesicles or membrane patches. The presence of ribosomes, an outer nuclear membrane marker, on many chromatin-binding vesicles suggested that chromatin-attachment proteins integral to the inner membrane were present on vesicles that also carried markers of the outer membrane and endoplasmic reticulum. Chromatin-associated vesicles also carried pore membrane proteins, since pore complexes formed when these vesicles were incubated with cytosol. A change in nuclear envelope morphology termed ‘envelope smoothing’ occurred 5–15 minutes after enclosure. Nuclear envelopes that were assembled in extracts depleted of wheat-germ-agglutinin-binding nucleoporins, and therefore unable to form functional pore complexes, remained wrinkled, suggesting that ‘smoothing’ required active nuclear transport. Lamins accumulated with time when nuclei were enclosed and had functional pore complexes, whereas lamins were not detected on nuclei that lacked functional pore complexes. Very low levels of lamins were detected on nuclear intermediates whose surfaces were substantially covered with patches of pore-complex-containing envelope, suggesting that pore complexes might be functional before enclosure.

scholarly journals Preventing re-replication of DNA in a single cell cycle: evidence for a replication licensing factor

1993 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 993-1002 ◽  
Author(s):  
JJ Blow
Keyword(s):  
Cell Cycle ◽  
Dna Replication ◽  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Kinase Inhibitor ◽  
Chromatin Modification ◽  
Replication Factor ◽  
Licensing Factor ◽  
Egg Extracts ◽  
Nuclear Envelope Assembly ◽  
Xenopus Egg Extracts

Xenopus egg extracts treated with the protein kinase inhibitor 6-dimethylaminopurine (6-DMAP) are unable to support the initiation of DNA replication. Nuclei assembled in 6-DMAP extracts behave as though they are in G2, and will not undergo another round of DNA replication until passage through mitosis. 6-DMAP extracts are functionally devoid of a replication factor that modifies chromatin in early G1 before nuclear envelope assembly, but which is itself incapable of crossing the nuclear envelope. This chromatin modification is capable of supporting only a single round of semiconservative replication. The behavior of this replication factor is sufficient to explain why eukaryotic DNA is replicated once and only once in each cell cycle, and conforms to the previous model of a Replication Licensing Factor. Cell cycle analysis shows that this putative Licensing Factor is inactive during metaphase, but becomes rapidly activated on exit from metaphase when it can modify chromatin before nuclear envelope assembly is complete.

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