Dietzel, S., H. Niemann, B. Brückner, C. Maurange and R. Paro (1999).
The nuclear distribution of Polycomb during Drosophila melanogaster development
shown with a GFP fusion protein.
Chromosoma
, 108(2):83-94. (
Abstract)
If you are not coming from there anyway, you might want to check out the
introduction page
.
Until nuclear cycle 14 all nuclei in the Drosophila embryo divide synchronously in a syncytium where no cell membranes are formed between the nuclei. Thus, at this stage the embryo is one multinuclear cell. When the nuclear membrane breaks down during mitosis, the nuclear content thus can leak unrestricted into the embryonic cytoplasm. The sequence starts after entering mitosis between cycles 10 and 11 and ends in interphase of cycle 12. In the movie, it can be observed that at the onset of every mitosis the majority of the PC-GFP signal leaks into the cytoplasm. The bulk of the PC-GFP seems to disappear and then reappear during telophase. (This is due to the sudden distribution of the fluorescent molecules in a much larger volume, thus the signal to noise ratio decrease dramatically.) However a very weak but clearly detectable signal remains associated with the chromosomal area. This area is defined by the GFP signal itself but can also be seen in the DIC image because of its higher optical density.
The nuclei shown here are partly presented in our Chromosoma paper in Figure 3A This movie is also available at the Chromosoma Web site here .