Epiboly connected with cleavage in morula and early blastula stages of Xenopus laevis, a study using time-lapse...

Measurements were made of the external surface areas occupied by animal and vegetal blastomeres and their daughter cells at successive cleavage cycles in 15 embyros of Xenopus laevis. On the animal side, after each cleavage a general area increase (epiboly) occurs from cycle 4 (16-cell stage, stage 5) to cycle 10 (stage 8 1/2), while on the vegetal side there is a slight general area decrease after each cleavage from cycle 6 to cycle 10. The comparison between the external surface areas of individual animal blastomeres and those of their daughter cells, visible at the next cycle, shows a significantly larger increase after radial than after tangential cleavage, a difference that may be connected with the insertion of new membrane into the external surface at radial cleavage.