The meroblastic egg of the teleost, Fundulus heteroclitus, was studied electrophysiologically from cleavage to mid-gastrula stages. The yolk is an intracellular inclusion surrounded by a membrane of high resistivity (50 kΩcm2). This membrane generates a cytoplasm-negative resting potential in later stages. Cells of all stages studied are coupled electrically. In gastrulae, coupling is both by way of specialized junctions between cells and by way of intra-embryonic extracellular space, the segmentation cavity. The latter mode is present because the segmentation cavity is sealed off from the exterior by a high resistance barrier, and the outer membrane of surface cells is of high resistance (50–100 kΩcm2) compared to the inner membrane. It can be inferred that clefts between surface cells are occluded by circumferential junctions. Isolated cells from late cleavage stages develop coupling in vitro, confirming the existence of coupling by way of intercellular junctions. Both modes of coupling could mediate communication between cells that is important in embryonic development.
Article|
March 01 1970
ELECTRICAL COUPLING BETWEEN EMBRYONIC CELLS BY WAY OF EXTRACELLULAR SPACE AND SPECIALIZED JUNCTIONS
M. V. L. Bennett,
M. V. L. Bennett
From the Department of Anatomy, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461, the Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
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J. P. Trinkaus
J. P. Trinkaus
From the Department of Anatomy, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461, the Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Search for other works by this author on:
M. V. L. Bennett
From the Department of Anatomy, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461, the Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
J. P. Trinkaus
From the Department of Anatomy, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461, the Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Received:
August 12 1969
Revision Received:
October 15 1969
Online ISSN: 1540-8140
Print ISSN: 0021-9525
Copyright © 1970 by The Rockefeller University Press
1970
J Cell Biol (1970) 44 (3): 592–610.
Article history
Received:
August 12 1969
Revision Received:
October 15 1969
Citation
M. V. L. Bennett, J. P. Trinkaus; ELECTRICAL COUPLING BETWEEN EMBRYONIC CELLS BY WAY OF EXTRACELLULAR SPACE AND SPECIALIZED JUNCTIONS . J Cell Biol 1 March 1970; 44 (3): 592–610. doi: https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.44.3.592
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