Fig. 8. Cortical microfilament bundles slide past each other, paralleling the direction of shear. (A) Equatorial view via confocal microscopy of an egg matured from an oocyte injected with GFP-actin mRNA. The egg was parthenogenetically activated and incubated in BDM/nocodazole. White bars indicate the orientation of the animal-vegetal axis. (B) The colorized region is examined at higher magnification, showing GFP-decorated microfilaments oriented in a band paralleling the equator. (C) The fluorescence intensity profile along a white transect in B paralleling the animal-vegetal meridian. The distribution of intensity maxima indicates relatively uniform spacing of GFP-actin microfilament bundles. Scale bar in B: 15 µm.