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Fig. 1. (A-O) Time course of the first cell cycle and early development in Fucus spiralis zygotes. Zygotes were stained with mithramycin A at various times after fertilisation (AF): 1 hour (A); 3 hours, just before pronuclei fusion (B); 4 hours, after fusion (C); 14 hours, decondensed nuclei before germination (D,J); 16-17 hours, nuclear envelope breakdown and chromatin condensation (E,F); 18-20 hours, prophase (G), metaphase in a germinated cell (H,K), anaphase (I), telophase (L); 24 hours, cytokinesis (M). At 26 hours AF, embryo exhibiting two cells in metaphase (N). Note that the metaphase plate is transverse to the polar axis. (O) At 30 hours AF, subsequent parallel and transverse divisions in the rhizoid and thallus cells. Arrowheads in L-N indicate the germination site. Scale bar: 30 µm in A,B,N,O; 25 µm in K,M; 20 µm in C,E,J,L; 10 µm in H,I; 5 µm in D,F,G. (P) Temporal relationships between polarisation and G2 phase. Two representative experiments are shown (100 cells for each time point). The proportion of cells in late S or G2 phase (as determined by their ability to divide in the presence of aphidicolin), as well as the percentage of photopolarised cells (germination in response to a light vector) or those with a fixed axis (irreversible anchoring of polarity), are reported for each time point of development. (Q) Temporal relationships between cell cycle events and stages in zygote polarisation. The beginning of S phase occurs at 5-6 hours AF, as determined by measuring the expression of histone H3, a gene expressed at the onset of S phase. A peak of H1 kinase activity, which is representative of CDK activity, is detected at the time of mitosis (Corellou et al., 2000b). The purine derivative olomoucine inhibits cell cycle progression at the G1/S transition (preventing DNA replication and expression of histone H3) and at the G2/M transition, and through mitosis, by specifically inhibiting CDK-like proteins. Aphidicolin, by contrast, inhibits DNA replication but not the expression of histone H3. Whereas photopolarisation occurs before G2 phase, axis fixation begins in late S phase and ends in G2 phase in the majority of zygotes (as deduced from an analysis of 10 independent populations).
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