Protein-Synthesizing Machinery in the Growing Oocyte of the Cyclic Mouse: A Quantitative Electron Microscopic Study

Abstract

A quantitative ultrastructural evaluation of the oocyte ribosomal population was carried out during the oocyte growth, bearing in mind that this period of the mouse oogenesis displays the greatest activity of ribosomal RNA synthesis. At the onset of growth almost 3/4 of the oocyte ribosomes exist as singles, these become polysomal ribosomes as growth progresses. At the same time the number of ribosomes increases. Once the major growth period has elapsed, the number of ribosomes starts to decrease just when lattice-like structures exhibiting a periodic organization begin to accumulate in the oocyte cytoplasmic matrix. Evidence, like the particulate organization of these lattices, the size of their particles, its digestion by RNase, and the time of the lattice appearance, together with data reported by several authors, allows one to suggest that near the end of the oocyte growth a great part of the ribosomes are stored in the lattices to be used during early development.