Reorganisation of microtubule arrays in the telotrophic ovaries of hemipteran insects: Correlation with meiotic reinitiation.

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We have shown that, in the ovaries of hemipteran insects, microtubule reorganisation and depolymerisation in the oocytes, and in the nutritive tubes supplying them, correlate with the activation of M-phase promoting factor (MPF) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) as the oocytes proceed to arrest at the first meiotic metaphase. The application, however, of Xenopus egg extracts with high MPF activities to isolated nutritive tube microtubules failed to result in their depolymerisation, suggesting that a novel factor may be required for the breakdown of these highly stable microtubule arrays in vivo.