Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2014
Several lines of evidence have accumulated in recent years indicating that nuclear cytoplasmic interactions play an important role in the formation and fate of the developing mouse embryo. Early nuclear transplantation experiments indicated that the ability of nuclei to direct cleavage after transfer into enucleated zygotes falls abruptly with nuclei from more advanced preimplantation stages [1]. Transcriptional activation of the nuclei, which occurs during the second cell cycle probably precludes the reprogramming of nuclei from later cleavage stages [2]. Thus, when an 8-cell nucleus is transferred to an enucleated zygote, such a reconstituted zygote is blocked at the 2-cell stage. However, when identical 8-cell nuclei were transferred into both blastomeres of enucleated 2-cell embryos, they were able to support development to the blastocyst stage and even gave rise to live offspring [2-4]. This indicated the importance of the cytoplasmic environment for the ability of the incoming nucleus to support development. It should be noted that in these experiments, the nuclear cytoplasmic ratio was also an important factor in determining the development of the reconstituted embryos [2]. Similar observations were also made when monitoring the development of haploid embryos [5]. In another study, Latham and Solter [6] examined the ability of androgenones, obtained by replacing the female pronucleus of a zygote by the male pronucleus, to develop to the blastocyst stage. Androgenones generated from C57B1/6 eggs were found to be much more competent to give rise to blastocysts than were DBA/2 androgenones. However, when androgenones were constructed from (DBA/2×C57B1/6)F1, zygotes (genetic constitution of the embryos will hereafter be indicated with the female parent coming first followed by the male parent), by replacing the DBA/2 female pronucleus with a C57B1/6 pronucleus, they also developed poorly. This was not simply due to the lack of some component in DBA/2 cytoplasm, since the impaired development was also observed when C57B1/6 male pronuclei from pairs of (DBA/2×C57B1/6) F1, were transferred to an enucleated C57B1/6 egg.