Orientation of mitotic spindles during the 8- to 16-cell stage transition in mouse embryos.
BACKGROUND:Asymmetric cell divisions are involved in the divergence of the first two lineages of the pre-implantation mouse embryo. They first take place after cell polarization (during compaction) at the 8-cell stage. It is thought that, in contrast to many species, spindle orientation is random, a...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2009-12-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2781390?pdf=render |
| Summary: | BACKGROUND:Asymmetric cell divisions are involved in the divergence of the first two lineages of the pre-implantation mouse embryo. They first take place after cell polarization (during compaction) at the 8-cell stage. It is thought that, in contrast to many species, spindle orientation is random, although there is no direct evidence for this. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Tubulin-GFP and live imaging with a spinning disk confocal microscope were used to directly study spindle orientation in whole embryos undergoing the 8- to 16-cell stage transition. This approach allowed us to determine that there is no predetermined cleavage pattern in 8-cell compacted mouse embryos and that mitotic spindle orientation in live embryo is only modulated by the extent of cell rounding up during mitosis. CONCLUSIONS:These results clearly demonstrate that spindle orientation is not controlled at the 8- to 16-cell transition, but influenced by cell bulging during mitosis, thus reinforcing the idea that pre-implantation development is highly regulative and not pre-patterned. |
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| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |