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Microgravity and Hypergravity Effects on Fertilization of the Salamander Pleurodeles waltl (Urodele Amphibian)¹

^a Laboratoire d'Immunologie Comparée, Université P. et M. Curie, 75253 Paris cedex 05, France ^b EA 2401 Génétique et Interactions Cellulaires en Reproduction, Université Henri Poincaré, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France ^c Centre de Biologie du Développement, UMR 5547 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

ABSTRACT

Effects of microgravity (µG) on fertilization were studied in the urodele amphibian Pleurodeles waltl on board the MIR space station. Genetic and cytomorphologic analyses ruled out parthenogenesis or gynogenesis and proved that fertilization did occur in µG. Actual fertilization was demonstrated by the analysis of the distribution of peptidase-1 genes, a polymorphic sex-linked enzyme, in progenies obtained in µG. Further evidence of fertilization was provided by the presence of spermatozoa in the perivitelline space and in the fertilization layer of the µG eggs and by the presence of a female pronucleus and male pronuclei in the egg cytoplasm. Experiments in µG and in 1.4G, 2G, and 3G hypergravity showed for the first time that, compared to eggs in 1G, several characteristics of the fertilization process including the cortical reaction and the microvillus transformations were altered depending on the gravitational force applied to the eggs. Microvillus elevation, the most evident feature, was reduced on µG-eggs and amplified on eggs submitted to 2G and 3G. No lethal consequences of these alterations on the early development of µG-eggs were observed.

FOOTNOTES

First decision: 7 January 2000.

¹ This work was supported by grants from the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and the Ministère de l'Education Nationale, de la Recherche et de la Technologie.

² Correspondence: Christian Dournon, EA 2401 Génétique et Interactions Cellulaires en Reproduction, Université Henri Poincaré, B.P. 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France. FAX: 33 3 83 91 24 46; christian.dournon{at}scbiol.uhp-nancy.fr

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