PULSATIONS IN THE NEREIS EGG

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Gross changes in egg shape which characterize the period prior to cleavage and follow each other in rapid succession were studied by means of camera lucida drawings of eggs between approximately 5 min. after insemination and the 1st cleavage. These pulsations are greatest in magnitude at about the time of germinal vesicle breakdown. The pulsations cease during the periods of 1st and 2d polocyte formation and formation of the cleavage furrow; and there is a pause during a "rest period" which appears at about 25 min. after insemination. It appears probable that the pulsations are in reality continuous but are suppressed and masked by the gelation of the egg cytoplasm which Heilbrunn et al. have described in connection with cytological changes during maturation and cleavage. Some observations were made on eggs in hypertonic media.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: