Title: The effect of deoxyribonucleic acids extracted from sea urchin sperm on the development of sea urchin eggs
Abstract: Eggs of Paracentrotus lividus and Psammechinus miliaris were reared in sea water with different concentrations of DNA from sperm of Paracentrotus lividus, Psammechinus miliaris, Arbacia lixula and Echinocardium cordatum. DNA from the same species did not arrest development. DNA from the irregular sea urchin Echinocardium seemed to be more injurious than the others. Animal halves became more or less animalized when reared in solutions of DNA (Figs. 1–3) or in three of the five tested synthetic nucleosides (Figs. 4–6). When the injected DNA did not mix with the cytoplasm the egg could be fertilized and develop normally; in these cases the drop was slowly ejected from the cell. If DNA injected into unfertilized eggs mixed with the cytoplasm the stronger solutions caused activation. A fertilization membrane was elevated, a color change of the surface layer sometimes occurred, and in a few cases an abortive cleavage occurred (Fig. 7), but eventually the egg cytolysed. Eggs which did not become activated after injection of low concentrations of DNA could be fertilized, and developed normally. As the volume injected was not accurately measured, no positive conclusions can be drawn concerning species specificity of the DNA preparations used. Neither treatment with, nor injection of Echinocardium DNA changed the species character of the larvae of Paracentrotus.
Publication Year: 1954
Publication Date: 1954-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 10
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