ABSTRACT
The spectrum of low molecular weight compounds, in particular of ribonucleotides, within first cleavage stage embryos of the polar lobe-forming mollusc Nassarius reticulatus and the distribution of the compounds within the embryo at the trefoil stage of first cleavage are analysed by means of capillary isotachophoresis after 0.5 M PCA extraction. The compounds which are found in the whole trefoil embryo (T), the lobeless part (LL), and the polar lobe (PL) respectively, and the mean quantities (nmol. microliter-1; n = 6) are: UTP (11.5, 4.8, 5.6), ITP (8.5, 3.6, 5.0), GTP (10.3, 3.0, 9.0), ATP (29.8, 13.4, 18.8), UDP (11.8, 3.4, 8.7), CTP (8.0, 3.1, 4.5), GDP (5.3, 2.6, 3.4), ADP (16.5, 6.1, 11.6), CDP (4.0, 1.4, 2.6), GMP (4.7, 2.7, 4.3), glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) (53.5, 38.8, 13.0). These compounds appear to be localized in the non-yolk cytoplasmic pool. As the volume ratio of PL/LL for total volume and for non-yolk cytoplasmic volume is about 0.74 and 0.60 respectively, the concentration of all nucleotides in PL as compared to LL is significantly higher (HO, p less than 0.001), both relative to the total volume and to the non-yolk cytoplasmic volume. The G6P concentration is considerably higher in the lobeless part. The morphogenetic role of the vegetal pole compartment of the egg apparently is correlated with a relatively high level of its nucleotide contents.
