A step in embryonic axis specification in Xenopus laevis is simulated by cytoplasmic displacements elicited by gravity and centrifugal force.
Determination of the body pattern in Xenopus embryos is known to involve at least six steps.  One of these steps can be experimentally simulated by inclining the fertilized egg with respect to gravity or centrifugal force (10-30 g x 4 min, directed 90 degrees to the animal-vegetal axis).  In these eggs, the dorsal structures of the body axis form from the side of the egg that was uppermost in the gravitational or centrifugal field.  This topography is seen even if the sperm entry point side (the prospective ventral side in control eggs) was uppermost.  In addition, conjoined twin embryos form at very high frequencies in response to certain conditions of single or double centrifugation.  Cytological analysis shows that the dorsal structures invariably form from the side(s) of the egg away from which vegetal cytoplasm was displaced.  This is similar to the situation in the unperturbed egg, where the subcortical cytoplasm of the vegetal hemisphere rotates some 30 degrees relative to the surface, and the dorsal structures form from the side of the egg away from which the subcortical cytoplasm moved.  The displacements elicited by centrifugation probably substitute for the normal displacements brought about by the subcortical rotation.  These and other data suggest that the subcortical rotation is a crucial step in the process of axis determination.  The subcortical rotation is an autonomous activity of the activated egg, and can displace cytoplasm against gravity.  I believe that the subcortical rotation will function normally at microgravity, and I expect that overall development and axis polarity at microgravity will be normal.  This will be tested in spaceflight.
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Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706, USA.
D000818:Animals; D016764:Cell Polarity; D002498:Centrifugation; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000166:cytology; D005306:Fertilization / Q000502:physiology; D006112:Gravitation; D013026:Space Flight; D014893:Weightlessness; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000196:embryology* / Q000254:growth & development