Model of magnetic field-induced mitotic apparatus reorientation in frog eggs

Abstract

Recent experiments have shown that intense static magnetic fields can alter the geometry of the early cell cleavages of Xenopus laevis eggs. The changes depend on field orientation, strength, and timing. We present a model that qualitatively accounts for these effects and which presumes that the structures involved in cell division are cylindrically symmetric and diamagnetically anisotropic and that the geometry of the centrosome replication and spreading processes dictates the nominal cleavage geometry. Within this model, the altered cleavage geometry results from the magnetic field-induced realignment of mitotic structures, which causes a realignment of the centrosome replication and spreading processes.