MICROTUBULES AND CYTOPLASMIC REORGANIZATION IN THE FROG EGG

This chapter discusses the establishment of organization in the frog egg cytoplasm in the unfertilized egg and its subsequent reorganization during the first cell cycle, in the hope that examination of these processes may reveal the nature of developmentally important differences and the mechanisms, by which they are established. The chapter describes the role of microtubules (MT) in these events. Descriptions of MT redistribution that correlate with cytoplasmic reorganization, and the disruption of cytoplasmic reorganization, by agents that affect microtubule stability, have implicated MTs in both steps of organization. Microtubules in the frog egg play essential roles in both cell cycle events (mitosis, cleavage) and key processes of the cytoplasmic organization, including: the establishment of animal-vegetal polarity and the cortical rotation that specifies the dorsal-ventral axis. © 1992 Academic Press, Inc.