Release of mature starfish oocytes from interphase arrest by microinjection of human centrosomes

Abstract

Mature oocytes (unfertilized eggs) are arrested at definite cell-cycle stages which vary from species to species. In frogs and mammals, the oocytes are arrested at the second metaphase of meiosis whereas in echinoderms they are blocked later, at the pronucieus stage. What causes the maturing oocytes to stop at some point in the cell cycle is not entirely clear. In frogs, the metaphase arrest seems to be maintained by a cytostatic factor¹. In echinoderms, which stop at interphase, no such a factor has so far been found. The fertilization process, beyond the introduction of paternal chromosomes, releases the opcyte from cell-cycle arrest and provides a functional centrosome to replace the endogeneous centrosome which is apparently lost during oogenesis in most species^3–5. Several lines of evidence suggest that release from cell-cycle arrest is mediated by a Ca²⁺ burst which is associated with fertilization^6–9, and it is known that the functional centrosome provided by the sperm is necessary for mitotic spindle formation and cleavages^4,6,10. We report here that microinjection of purified human centrosomes into mature starfish oocytes is sufficient to release them from arrest at interphase and to support many cleavages leading to the occasional formation of normal embryos. In this species centrosome induced re-entry into the cell cycle does not require a transient calcium burst nor does it require intact microtubules.