title: Intercellular voltage gradient between oocyte and nurse cell in a polychaete.
abstract: In the polychaete Ophryotrocha labronica the oocyte is supported during vitellogenesis by a single nurse cell, which is cytoplasmically contiguous with the oocyte through an intercellular bridge. Our electrical measurements demonstrate a marked potential difference (22-32 mV) between the oocyte and the nurse cell in mid-vitellogenesis, suggesting an electrophoretically caused migration of nurse cell constituents into the oocyte. Possibly this potential gradient helps to create a developmental prepattern in the oocyte, a role postulated for similar gradients within the oocyte-nurse cell complex of the Cecropia moth.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D003593:Cytoplasm; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005260:Female; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D009865:Oocytes / Q000502:physiology; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D014818:Vitellogenesis