Chromosome activities in cleaving mouse embryos to construct prenucleolar bodies orienting an intranuclear...

Most chromosomes of cleaving mouse embryos formed spherical structures called as prenucleolar bodies. Embryos stained with fluorescing dyes selective for AT-rich regions of DNA indicated that chromosome centromeres were organized by prenucleolar bodies and that chromosomes at pre-prophase of the cleavage division started to condense with their centromere regions aligned towards the peripheries of spheres. Embryo chromosomes as well as prenucleolar bodies were shown to bind a monoclonal antibody to spliceosomal snRNAs, which are contrasted to the nucleoli or chromosomes of somatic cells. More than 10 prenucleolar bodies were found in the pronuclei at the earliest stage after fertilization and 40 of them at most, diploid number of chromosomes of the mouse, in the nuclei of the 2-cell embryos. The number was decreased later in the cell cycles and at the 4-cell stage. Hence, every chromosome of cleaving mouse embryos is highly active in constructing prenucleolar bodies and behaves during the interphase until mitosis as a unit of the body; either as a single unit or as a member of the units fused. In other words, the prenucleolar bodies function as centers orienting chromosome-chromosome configuration in the fertilized eggs.