Accumulation of pigment granules around nuclei in early embryos of Anura (Amphibia).

A dark spot was found to appear in each blastomere of the vegetal surface of blastulae of Rana rugosa, Hyla arborea. The spot divided into two before division of the blastomere, so that one new spot was allotted to each daughter cell. These dark spots were formed at early blastula stage, and persisted until the end of yolk plug stage. Cytological observations showed that each dark spot corresponds to a mass of accumulated pigment granules around the nucleus of a blastomere. The accumulation increases with development during the cleavage period more rapidly in blastomeres of the vegetal hemisphere than in those of the animal hemisphere. This accumulation of pigment granules around nuclei during development indicates that the granules are transported toward the nuclei during the cleavage period, suggesting some sort of directional flow of cytoplasm in blastomeres of early amphibian embryos.