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Brief Communication

Nature Cell Biology 4, 811–815 (1 October 2002) | doi:10.1038/ncb860

Site of the previous meiotic division defines cleavage orientation in the mouse embryo

Berenika Plusa , Joanna B. Grabarek , Karolina Piotrowska , David M. Glover & Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz

The conservation of early cleavage patterns in organisms as diverse as echinoderms and mammals suggests that even in highly regulative embryos such as the mouse, division patterns might be important for development. Indeed, the first cleavage divides the fertilized mouse egg into two cells: one cell that contributes predominantly to the embryonic part of the blastocyst, and one that contributes to the abembryonic part.