The localization of RNAs at the vegetal cortex in Xenopus oocytes is a complex process, involving at least two different pathways. The early, or messenger transport organizer (METRO), pathway, localizes RNAs such as Xlsirts, Xcat2 and Xwnt11 during stages 1 and 2 of oogenesis, while the late pathway localizes RNAs such as Vg1 during stages 2-4. We demonstrate that the onset of Vg1 localization ...

Artificial Immune Systems (AISs) are a type of intelligent algorithm inspired by the principles and processes of the human immune system. Despite the successful implementation of different AISs, the validity of the paradigm "self non self" have lifted many questions. The Danger theory was an alternative to this paradigm. If we involve its principles, the AIS is being applied as a classifier. Ho...

A dark spot was found to appear in each blastomere of the vegetal surface of blastulae of Rana rugosa, Hyla arborea. The spot divided into two before division of the blastomere, so that one new spot was allotted to each daughter cell. These dark spots were formed at early blastula stage, and persisted until the end of yolk plug stage. Cytological observations showed that each dark spot correspo...

We report a novel zygotic gene encoding a Xenopus endodermal nuclear factor, Xenf. Expression of Xenf starts at the late blastula stages and is decreased after gastrulation. Xenf shows no structural homology to any known proteins. When GFP-tagged Xenf is overexpressed in Xenopus cells, Xenf protein is localized to the nucleus, associating closely with the chromosomes. In animal cap assays, Xenf...

Vegetal products are generally characterized through a high level of sensitivity due to environmental factors and to the operations they are submitted to during their preparation. This leads to meaningful changes regarding vegetal products nutritional and sensorial characteristics. The prevention of such drawbacks can be made by introducing active compounds in their structure in order to protec...

An extracellular signaling molecule acts on several types of cells, evoking characteristic and different responses depending on intrinsic factors in the signal-receiving cells. In ascidian embryos, notochord and mesenchyme are induced in the anterior and posterior margins, respectively, of the vegetal hemisphere by the same FGF signal emanating from endoderm precursors. The difference in the re...

Transport of specific mRNAs to defined regions within the cell cytoplasm is a fundamental mechanism for regulating cell and developmental polarity. In the Xenopus oocyte, Vg1 RNA is transported to the vegetal cytoplasm, where localized expression of the encoded protein is critical for embryonic polarity. The Vg1 localization pathway is directed by interactions between key motifs within Vg1 RNA ...

Xenopus Vg 1, a transforming growth factor beta (Tgfbeta) family member, was one of the first maternally localized mRNAs identified in vertebrates. Its restriction to the vegetal pole of the egg made it the ideal candidate to be the mesoderm-inducing signal released by vegetal cells, but its function in vivo has never been resolved. We show that Vg 1 is essential for Xenopus embryonic developme...

INTRODUCTION Fate maps of the late blastula stage of the Xenopus laevis embryo indicate that the cells of the vegetal pole area are destined to become part of the endoderm germ layer (Keller, 1975; Heasman, Wylie, Hausen & Smith, 1984). By labelling single cells from this region and transplanting them into the blastocoel cavity of host embryos, we have shown that the determinative process that ...