Abortive second meiosis detected in cytochalasin-treated eggs in androgenetic diploid Corbicula fluminea

Abstract

The hermaphroditic diploid clam Corbicula fluminea reproduces by androgenesis. In the control (androgenetic development), all maternal chromosomes and maternal centrosomes at the meiotic poles were extruded as two first polar bodies and subsequently second meiosis did not occur. In eggs treated with cytochalasin D (CD) to inhibit the polar body extrusion, the second meiosis was abortive. After the first meiosis, two centrosomes at the spindle poles remained in the cytoplasm because of the effect of CD. The chromosomes divided into two groups at anaphase-I as observed in the control eggs. Two centrosomes divided into four just after the first meiosis but did not separate completely. The microtubules from the centrosomes were rather short. So at the second meiosis, two monoasters or tetrapolar spindles were formed. The fluorescence signal from microtubules of the monoaster or tetrapolar spindle was weak compared with the spindle at the first meiosis. The maternal chromosomes on the monoaster or tetrapolar spindle did not move, and became large female pronuclei. The pronuclei became the metaphase chromosomes on the spindle for the first cleavage. The present study suggests that second meiosis regulating factors may be abortive in androgenetic diploid C. fluminea. © 2006 The Authors.