title: Snoods: a periodic network containing cytokeratin in the cortex of starfish oocytes.
abstract: An extensive fibrous cytoskeletal component in the cortical cytoplasm of oocytes of the starfish Pisaster ochraceus reproducibly stains with anticytokeratin antibody and hence contains cytokeratin. The large-meshed network resembles a snood (hair net). Snood fibers form loops and branches throughout the cortex of a premeiotic oocyte, except at the animal pole where they emanate from a nonstaining zone surrounding the centrosomes. By immunofluorescence microscopy of isolated cortices and electron microscopy of isolated cortices and intact oocytes, snood fibers exhibit complex striations with a periodicity of approximately 0.75 micron. Snoods are not colocalized with the cortical arrays of microtubules and are unaffected by drugs that disrupt microtubules or microfilaments. Stimulation of oocyte maturation by 1-methyladenine causes snoods to disappear, presumably by disassembly, about halfway to the time of germinal vesicle breakdown. They do not reappear during meiosis, fertilization, or development to the two-cell stage, and their functional importance, if any, during oogenesis or development remains to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, Washington 98250.
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Otto
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000818:Animals; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005306:Fertilization; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D007633:Keratins / Q000502:physiology*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008870:Microtubules / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009865:Oocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013215:Starfish / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: D007633:Keratins