Regional water changes during oocyte meiotic maturation: evidence of ooplasmic segregation

Cryomicrodissection was used to measure the intraoocytic distribution of water before and during meiotic maturation in Rana pipiens oocytes. Animal ooplasm contained about 10% more water in matured than in ovarian oocytes. The increase was not dependent on the uptake of extracellular water, occurring even when oocytes were matured in a paraffin oil medium. Rather, animal ooplasm hydration appeared to be due to an increase in the volume fraction occupied by cytoplasm (reduced yolk density) through: (1) migration of cytoplasm from the vegetal to animal hemisphere and (2) mixing of ooplasm with nuclear sap during germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). Cytoplasmic migration (or ooplasmic segregation) began prior to GVBD, probably within an hour of exposure to progesterone and appeared to continue through the period of GVBD. The volume of cytoplasm that moved significantly reduced water concentrations in vegetal ooplasm at 6 hr postprogesterone and offset any subsequent water gain due to the mixing of nuclear sap and vegetal ooplasm at GVBD. The findings suggest that segregational movements are among the early maturational changes entrained by progesterone. Ooplasmic segregation is considered in the context of theories of cytomatrix movement in which control resides in regional Ca2+ activity gradients. We address the problem of the vegetal----animal directionality of movement and suggest that the annulate lamellae play a role.