Fertilization in Paramecium: Processes of the Nuclear Reorganization

Author(s):  
K. Hiwatashi ◽  
K. Mikami
Author(s):  
William Theurkauf

Cell division in eucaryotes depends on coordinated changes in nuclear and cytoskeletal components. In Drosophila melanogaster embryos, the first 13 nuclear divisions occur without cytokinesis. During the final four divisions, nuclei divide in a uniform monolayer at the surface of the embryo. These surface divisions are accompanied by dramatic changes in cortical actin and microtubule structure (Karr and Alberts, 1986), and inhibitor studies indicate that these changes are essential to orderly mitosis (Zalokar and Erk, 1976). Because the early embryo is syncytial, fluorescent probes introduced by microinjection are incorporated in structures associated with all of the nuclei in the blastoderm. In addition, the nuclei divide synchronously every 10 to 20 min. These characteristics make the syncytial blastoderm embryo an excellent system for the analysis of mitotic reorganization of both nuclear and cytoskeletal elements. However, the Drosophila embryo is a large cell, and resolution of cytoskeletal filaments and nuclear structure is hampered by out-of focus signal.


1988 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-293
Author(s):  
M. F. CHAU ◽  
STEPHEN F. NG

The present study further analyses the importance of postmeiotic divisional derivatives of the micronucleus in the development of the oral apparatus of Paramecium during sexual reproduction. Cell lines possessing defective micronuclei generated by laser microbeam irradiation of the micronucleus were employed. They exhibited anomalies in nuclear reorganization and stomatogenesis in the sexual cycle. During autogamy, in some cells the micronuclear cycle terminated shortly after meiosis, resulting in the loss of all postmeiotic micronuclear derivatives. Stomatogenesis became arrested at an early stage of assembly of the oral membranelles, but the old oral apparatus was resorbed as usual, leading to the production of astomatous cells at the end of the sexual cycle. Conjugation of these cell lines with normal micronucleates rescued both nucleogenesis and stomatogenesis in the defective micronucleate conjugant, primarily as a result of transfer of the male gametic nucleus from the normal conjugant to the defective-micronucleate mate. These observations demonstrate the stomatogenic significance, in particular in the initiation of oral membranelle assembly, of the gametic nuclei during sexual reproduction. The present study also suggests the possibility of micronuclear activities in the early part of the sexual cycle affecting postzygotic nucleogenesis.


Development ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Jerka-Dziadosz ◽  
N. Garreau de Loubresse ◽  
J. Beisson

kin241 is a monogenic nuclear recessive mutation producing highly pleiotropic effects on cell size and shape, generation time, thermosensitivity, nuclear reorganization and cortical organization. We have analyzed the nature of the cortical disorders and their development during division, using various specific antibodies labelling either one of the cortical cytoskeleton components, as was previously done for analysis of cortical pattern formation in the wild type. Several abnormalities in basal body properties were consistently observed, although with a variable frequency: extra microtubules in either the triplets or in the lumen; nucleation of a second kinetodesmal fiber; abnormal orientation of the newly formed basal body with respect to the mother one. The latter effect seems to account for the major observed cortical disorders (reversal, intercalation of supplementary ciliary rows). The second major effect of the mutation concerns the spatiotemporal map of cortical reorganization during division. Excess basal body proliferation occurs and is correlated with modified boundaries of some of the cortical domains identified in the wild type on the basis of their basal body duplication pattern. This is the first mutant described in a ciliate in which both the structure and duplication of basal bodies and the body plan are affected. The data support the conclusion that the mutation does not alter the nature of the morphogenetic signal(s) which pervade the dividing cell, nor the competence of cytoskeletal structures to respond to signalling, but affects the local interpretation of the signals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifeng Jiang ◽  
Lai Chung Liu ◽  
Antoine Sarracini ◽  
Kamil M. Krawczyk ◽  
Jordan S. Wentzell ◽  
...  

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Egorov

All kinds of dynamic symmetries in dozy-chaos (quantum-classical) mechanics (Egorov, V.V. Challenges 2020, 11, 16; Egorov, V.V. Heliyon Physics 2019, 5, e02579), which takes into account the chaotic dynamics of the joint electron-nuclear motion in the transient state of molecular “quantum” transitions, are discussed. The reason for the emergence of chaotic dynamics is associated with a certain new property of electrons, consisting in the provocation of chaos (dozy chaos) in a transient state, which appears in them as a result of the binding of atoms by electrons into molecules and condensed matter and which provides the possibility of reorganizing a very heavy nuclear subsystem as a result of transitions of light electrons. Formally, dozy chaos is introduced into the theory of molecular “quantum” transitions to eliminate the significant singularity in the transition rates, which is present in the theory when it goes beyond the Born–Oppenheimer adiabatic approximation and the Franck–Condon principle. Dozy chaos is introduced by replacing the infinitesimal imaginary addition in the energy denominator of the full Green’s function of the electron-nuclear system with a finite value, which is called the dozy-chaos energy γ. The result for the transition-rate constant does not change when the sign of γ is changed. Other dynamic symmetries appearing in theory are associated with the emergence of dynamic organization in electronic-vibrational transitions, in particular with the emergence of an electron-nuclear-reorganization resonance (the so-called Egorov resonance) and its antisymmetric (chaotic) “twin”, with direct and reverse transitions, as well as with different values of the electron–phonon interaction in the initial and final states of the system. All these dynamic symmetries are investigated using the simplest example of quantum-classical mechanics, namely, the example of quantum-classical mechanics of elementary electron-charge transfers in condensed media.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 2428-2437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Loidl ◽  
Kazufumi Mochizuki

In the ciliate Tetrahymena, meiotic micronuclei (MICs) undergo extreme elongation, and meiotic pairing and recombination take place within these elongated nuclei (the “crescents”). We have previously shown that elongation does not occur in the absence of Spo11p-induced DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here we show that elongation is restored in spo11Δ mutants by various DNA-damaging agents including ones that may not cause DSBs to a notable extent. MIC elongation following Spo11p-induced DSBs or artificially induced DNA lesions is probably a DNA-damage response mediated by a phosphokinase signal transduction pathway, since it is suppressed by the ATM/ATR kinase inhibitors caffeine and wortmannin and by knocking out Tetrahymena's ATR orthologue. MIC elongation occurs concomitantly with the movement of centromeres away from the telomeric pole of the MIC. This DNA damage–dependent reorganization of the MIC helps to arrange homologous chromosomes alongside each other but is not sufficient for exact pairing. Thus, Spo11p contributes to bivalent formation in two ways: by creating a favorable spatial disposition of homologues and by stabilizing pairing by crossovers. The polarized chromosome orientation inside the crescent resembles the conserved meiotic bouquet, and crescent and bouquet also share the putative function of aiding meiotic pairing. However, they are regulated differently because in Tetrahymena, DSBs are required for entering rather than exiting this stage.


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