Nuclear actin depolymerization in transcriptionally active avian and amphibian oocytes leads to collapse of intranuclear structures.

ABSTRACT: Actin, which is normally depleted in the nuclei of somatic cells, accumulates in high amounts in giant nuclei of amphibian oocytes. The supramolecular organization and functions of this nuclear pool of actin in growing vertebrate oocyte are controversial. Here, we investigated the role of nuclear actin in the maintenance of the spatial architecture of intranuclear structures in avian and amphibian growing oocytes. A meshwork of filamentous actin was not detected in freshly isolated or fixed oocyte nuclei of Xenopus, chicken or quail. We found that the actin meshwork inside the oocyte nucleus could be induced by phalloidin treatment. Actin polymerization is demonstrated to be required to stabilize the specific spatial organization of nuclear structures in avian and amphibian growing oocytes

SUBMITTER: Maslova A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3414407 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature