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. 1977 Sep;181(3):193-202.
doi: 10.1007/BF00848420.

Nucleic acid synthesis in preimplantation mouse embryos : Autoradiographic evidence of uridine and deoxyuridine utilization in DNA synthesis

H Alexandre  1
Affiliations

Nucleic acid synthesis in preimplantation mouse embryos : Autoradiographic evidence of uridine and deoxyuridine utilization in DNA synthesis

H Alexandre. Wilehm Roux Arch Dev Biol. 1977 Sep.

Abstract

Mouse embryos were collected at the 2-cell stage, cultured in vitro in the presence of3H deoxyuridine or uridine for 6 or 4 h and autoradiographed.Deoxyuridine is actively incorporated into the DNA of cleaving mouse embryos indicating the existence of thymidylate synthetase activity at least at the 4-cell stage and presumably already before this.RNAase treatment of embryos squashed on slides shows a weak but obvious incorporation of uridine into DNA of cleaving mouse embryos, from the 4-cell stage onwards; this incorporation is totally inhibited by hydroxyurea. The reduction of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides is a metabolic pathway already required for cleavage, as shown by hydroxyurea experiments.The second polar pody, known to incorporate thymidine, is unable to incorporate either deoxyuridine or uridine.

Keywords: DNA synthesis; Mouse embryos; Uridine.

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