Nucleo-cytoplasmic interactions in cell hybrids between mouse oocytes, blastomeres and somatic cells.

With the help of the technique of Sendai virus-mediated cell fusion, hybrid cells were produced between two maturing oocytes, between maturing oocytes or mature secondary oocytes and interphase blastomeres from 2-cell embryos, and between secondary oocytes and follicle cells (FC). In the first case giant oocytes form and in these the two groups of condensing bivalents join on a common spindle, undergo a first meiotic division, and become arrested in metaphase II; these hybrids are heterozygous diploids. When blastomeres are fused with oocytes undergoing maturation, then the blastomere nucleus undergoes premature chromosome condensation (PCC), and two sets of chromosomes (meiotic and mitotic) come close to each other but the mitotic chromosomes are not fully incorporated into the meiotic spindle. The behaviour of the nuclei from blastomeres or from follicle cells fused with secondary ovulated oocytes, depends on whether or not the oocyte undergoes activation. When the oocyte is not activated, then the introduced nuclei undergo PCC but the chromosomes remain separate from the spindle of metaphase II. When the oocyte is activated, then the introduced nuclei remain in interphase; the FC nuclei may increase their volume eight times and undergo some other structural changes but during the 6 h period after fusion their appearance remains distinct from that of the female pronucleus. Since some oocytes are not activated after fusion has occurred, it follows that the fusion process itself is not sufficient to trigger egg activation.