The synthesis of nucleic acids and proteins in the nuclei of Tradescantia root tips

Autoradiographic study of DNA synthesis and the cell cycle in spermatogonia and spermatocytes of mouse testis using tritiated thymidine

Mice were injected intraperitoneally with 15 µc of H³-thymidine. The time course of the labeling in spermatogonia and spermatocytes was studied by using autoradiography on 5 µ sections stained by the periodic acid-Schiff method and hematoxylin over a period of 57 hours after injection. Four generations of type A (called AI, AII, AIII, and AIV), one of intermediate, and one of type B spermatogonia occur in one cycle of the seminiferous epithelium. The average life span is about the same in all spermatogonia, i.e., about 27 to 30.5 hours. The average pre-DNA synthetic time, including the mitotic stages from metaphase through telophase and the portion of interphase preceding DNA synthesis, is also not very different, ranging between 7.5 and 10.5 hours. A remarkable difference exists, however, in the duration of DNA synthesis and of the post-DNA synthetic period. The average DNA synthetic time is very long and is highly variable in type B (14.5 hours), a little shorter and less variable in intermediate (12.5 hours) and AIV (13 hours) spermatogonia, and much shorter and very constant in AIII (8 hours), AII and AI (7 to 7.5 hours) spermatogonia. Conversely, the average post-DNA synthetic time, corresponding essentially to the duration of the prophase, is short and very constant in type B (4.5 hours), longer and variable in intermediate (6 hours) and AIV (8 hours) spermatogonia, and much longer and much more variable in AIII (11 hours), AII and AI (14 hours) spermatogonia. The premeiotic synthesis of DNA takes place in primary spermatocytes during the resting phase and terminates just before the visible onset of the meiotic prophase. Its average duration is 14 hours. No further synthesis of DNA takes place in later stages of spermatogenesis.

GROWTH OF POLLEN GRAIN NUCLEI OF TRADESCANTIA PALUDOSA

Pollen grain nuclei of Tradescantia paludosa Anderson and Woodson had a mean volume of 122 μm3 in early G1 and 1,415 μm3 in late G2. The distribution of nuclear volumes was not linear normal; however, it closely approximated a log normal distribution and probit plots yielded straight lines for the central 85-90% of the values. Most nuclei were spherical or nearly-spherical in early G1 but their increase in volume was accompanied by a change to an ovaloid or elongate shape. Interphase in the pollen grain lasted about five days at 25 °C. In the first 3.5 days the rate of increase in mean nuclear volume was about 87 μm3 per day. In the last 1.5 days of pollen grain interphase, nuclei increased at a mean rate of 658 μm3 per day; nuclear growth was relatively slow in G1 and rapid in G2. The largest nuclei tended to divide first; the result was that as the proportion of nuclei that have divided increased, mean nuclear volume decreased from 1415 μm3 to 680 μm3. Nuclear volumes were also determined for diploid nuclei of root meristem and sporogenous cells; their mean volumes were smaller, 1,355 μm3 and 1,018 μm3, than that of the G2 haploid nuclei, 1,415 μm3.

The time of synthesis and the conservation of mitosis-related proteins in cultured human amnion cells

p-Fluorophenylalanine (PFPA), an analogue of phenylalanine which may be incorporated into proteins, increases the duration of mitosis. In the present experiments, based upon quantitative analyses of time-lapse cinemicrographic films, brief treatments of cells with PFPA are shown to affect the duration of metaphase in only those cells which enter division during or shortly after treatment. The offspring of cells with prolonged metaphases also tend to have prolonged metaphases. Analyses of the kinetics of the appearance of prolonged metaphases indicate that some protein specifically associated with mitosis is synthesized primarily during a period which corresponds closely to G(2). The manner in which the defect is passed on to daughter cells indicates that the protein involved is conserved and reutilized by daughter cells for their subsequent divisions. Comparable experiments performed with low concentrations of puromycin indicate that the major effect of PFPA is due to its incorporation into protein rather than its ability to inhibit protein synthesis. The fact that puromycin-induced effects can also be passed on to daughter cells is interpreted to mean that cells make only specific amounts of some mitosis-associated proteins and that if a cell "inherits" a deficiency in such protein it is not able to compensate for the deficiency.