| Abstract: | Timing of vegetal-endodermal cell determination in amphioxus embryos remains uncertain. We tentatively testal effects of A23187, the calcium ionophore, on the deveopment of vegetal blastomeres isolated at the 16-cell stage. It was found that when vegetal blastomres committed to endodermwere treated with A23187 prior to gastrulation, they were transformed into ectodermal cells as evidenced by the cell morphology and function characteristic of epidermis. Howver, the developmental fate of the sam blastomeres untreated or treated with DMSO at the same stage or of those treated with A23187 after gastrulation remained unchanged. Thus, vegetal-endodermal cells in amphioxus embryos are not irreversibly deermined before the gastrula stage, and artificial incarease in intracelluar Ca2 concentration can induce transdetermination of the predetermined endodermal cells into ectodermal cells. |
