Spontaneous emergence of cell-like organization in Xenopus egg extracts

Abstract

Order in the cytoplasm Extracts of the very large eggs of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis , have proven a valuable model system for the study of cell division. Cheng and Ferrell found that after homogenization, such cytoplasm can reorganize back into cell-like structures and undergo multiple rounds of division (see the Perspective by Mitchison and Field). This reorganization apparently occurs without the usual factors that are known to lead to such structural changes during cell division, such as F-actin, myosin II, various individual kinesins, aurora kinase A, or DNA. What is required is energy from adenosine triphosphate, microtubule polymerization, cytoplasmic dynein activity, and a specific kinase-involved cell cycle progression. Nongenetic information in the cytoplasm is apparently sufficient for basic spatial organization of the cell. Science , this issue p. 631 ; see also p. 569