Text Book of Biology, Part 1: VertebrataWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Biology -- Textbooks
Section 6. Fertilization is effected by a spermatozoon meeting with
the ovum. It fuses with it, its nucleus becoming the male pro-nucleus.
This and the female pro-nucleus, left after the extrusion of the polar
cells, move towards each other, and unite to form the first
segmentation nucleus.
Section 7. The ovum next begins to divide. A furrow cutting deeper
and deeper divides it into two; another follows at right angles to this,
making the two four, and another equatorial furrow cuts off the animal
pole from the yolk or vegetative pole. (See Sheet 22, Figures 1, 2,
and 3.) And so segmentation (= cleavage) proceeds, and, at last, a
hollow sphere, the blastosphere (Figure 4) is formed, with a
segmentation cavity (s.c.). But, because of the presence of the yolk
at the vegetative pole of ovum, and of the mechanical resistance it
offers to the force of segmentation, the protoplasm there is not nearly
so finely divided-- the cells, that is to say, are much larger than at
the animal pole. The blastosphere of the frog is like what the
blastosphere of amphioxus would be, if the future hypoblast cells
were enormously larger through their protoplasm being diluted with
yolk.
Section 8. The next phase of development has an equally curious
resemblance to and difference from what occurs in the case of the ova
of animals which do not contain yolk. In such types (e.g., amphioxus)
a part of the blastosphere wall is tucked into the rest, and a gastrula
formed by this process of invagination. In the frog (Figure 5) there is a
tucking-in, but the part that should lie within the gastrula, the
yolk-containing cells, are far larger than the epiblast (ep.) which
should, form the outer layer of cells. Hence the epiblast can only by
continual growth accommodate what it must embrace, and the
process of tucking-in is accompanied by one of growth of the epiblast,
as shown by the unbarbed arrow, over the yolk. This stage is called
the gastrula stage; ar. is the cavity of the gastrula, the archenteron;
b.p. is its opening or blastopore. Such a gastrula, formed mainly by
overgrowth of the epiblast, is called an epibolic gastrula, as
distinguished from the invaginate gastrula of amphioxus. The
difference is evidently entirely due to the presence of yolk, and the
consequent modification of invagination in the former case.
Section 9. Comparing the two gastrulas, it is not difficult to see that if
we imagine the ventral wall of the archenteron of amphioxus to have
its cells enormously enlarged through the mixing of yolk with their
protoplasm, we should have a gastrula essentially like that of the frog.
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