The increase in intracellular pH associated with Xenopus egg activation is a Ca(2+)-dependent wave.

Abstract

In Xenopus eggs, the transient increase in intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i), or Ca2+ transient, which occurs 1-3 min after egg activation, is likely to be partly responsible for the release of the cell cycle blockade. In the present study, we have used microinjection of BAPTA or EGTA, two potent chelators of Ca2+, to buffer [Ca2+]i at various steps during Xenopus egg activation and evaluate the impact on some of the associated events. Microinjection of either one of the Ca2+ chelators into unactivated eggs prevented egg activation without, however, lowering [Ca2+]i, suggesting that only physiological [Ca2+]i changes, but not [Ca2+]i levels, were affected by the Ca2+ buffer. When BAPTA was microinjected around the time of occurrence of the Ca2+ transient, the egg activation-associated increase in intracellular pH (pHi) was clearly delayed. That delay was not due to a general slowing down of the cell cycle, since under the same conditions of microinjection of BAPTA the kinetics of MPF (a universal M-phase promoting factor) inactivation were unaffected. These results represent the first indication that the Ca2+ transient participates in determining the time of initiation of the pHi increase during Xenopus egg activation. The present results also demonstrate that the egg activation-associated pHi changes (a slight, transient decrease in pHi followed by a permanent increase in pHi) proceed as a wave propagating from the site of triggering of egg activation. Experiments of local microinjection of BAPTA support the view that the pH wave is a consequence of the Ca2+ wave, which it follows closely.