Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on November 24, 2006
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/del424
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 Mammalian Development Laboratory, University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. BACKGROUND: Rather than being prepatterned, orientation of the embryonic-abembryonic (Em-Ab) axis of the mouse blastocyst has been claimed to depend on the conceptus being constrained by its zona pellucida (ZP) during blastulation. This hypothesis merited closer scrutiny, because it seemed at variance with observations on living conceptuses. METHODS: Two-cell conceptuses with an oil drop injected into the lesser diameter (LD) of the ZP at the first cleavage plane were cultured until shortly before blastulation when the blastomere underlying the drop was labelled with carbocyanine dye. After removing the ZP, conceptuses were re-cultured to the blastocyst stage for recording the position along the axis of the centres of the patches of labelled cells. RESULTS: These centres showed significant bias towards the equatorial (Eq) region of the axis compared with those resulting from labelling a blast-omere at random, even following softening of the ZP at the 2-cell stage. This was also true if conceptuses were denuded at the 2-cell stage and the blastomere underlying an intact second polar body (PB) labelled in morulae. CONCLUSIONS: These findings further support the view that the Em-Ab axis of the mouse blastocyst is normally prepatterned and provide no evidence of a role for the ZP in its specification.
Received July 7, 2006
Revised September 20, 2006
Accepted September 29, 2006
Article
The axis of polarity of the mouse blastocyst is specified before blastulation and independently of the zona pellucida
R.L. Gardner 1 *
R.L. Gardner, E-mail: richard.gardner{at}zoo.ox.ac.uk
Abstract 
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  J. Rossant and P. P. L. Tam Blastocyst lineage formation, early embryonic asymmetries and axis patterning in the mouse Development, March 1, 2009; 136(5): 701 - 713. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Jedrusik, D.-E. Parfitt, G. Guo, M. Skamagki, J. B. Grabarek, M. H. Johnson, P. Robson, and M. Zernicka-Goetz Role of Cdx2 and cell polarity in cell allocation and specification of trophectoderm and inner cell mass in the mouse embryo Genes & Dev., October 1, 2008; 22(19): 2692 - 2706. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. E. Torres-Padilla Cell identity in the preimplantation mammalian embryo: an epigenetic perspective from the mouse Hum. Reprod., June 1, 2008; 23(6): 1246 - 1252. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Bischoff, D.-E. Parfitt, and M. Zernicka-Goetz Formation of the embryonic-abembryonic axis of the mouse blastocyst: relationships between orientation of early cleavage divisions and pattern of symmetric/asymmetric divisions Development, March 1, 2008; 135(5): 953 - 962. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J.-E. Dietrich and T. Hiiragi Stochastic patterning in the mouse pre-implantation embryo Development, December 1, 2007; 134(23): 4219 - 4231. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Y. Kurotaki, K. Hatta, K. Nakao, Y.-i. Nabeshima, and T. Fujimori Blastocyst Axis Is Specified Independently of Early Cell Lineage But Aligns with the ZP Shape Science, May 4, 2007; 316(5825): 719 - 723. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|