In article
<Pine.HPP.3.91.970627085918.20059G-100000 at ophelia.ucs.indiana.edu>,
malacins <malacins at indiana.edu> wrote:
> I believe we are working on a FALSE assumption: The way to get cleavage
> is to inject sperm directly into electrically activated eggs.
>
I too am surprised that pricking and electrically activating eggs doesn't
start things going. But my (admittedly naive) impression of the whole
oocyte-to-egg-to-cleaving-embryo sequence is that there are almost as many
variations in timing and mechanism as there are different animals.
Could it be that axolotls eggs need to see a real sperm on the surface to
get things rolling? In zebrafish we activate eggs to go through haploid
development by incubating them with sperm whose DNA has been completely
inactivated by uv irradiation. Given all that you have already worked
out, this ought to be very simple to try.
Steve.
--
Stephen Henri Devoto
