Gene reactivation in erythrocytes: nuclear transplantation in oocytes and eggs of Rana.

Adult erythrocyte nuclei of Rana, transplanted and incubated in the cytoplasm of maturing oocytes, direct matured oocytes to form swimming tadpoles. These results demonstrate that nuclei of noncycling and terminally differentiated erythrocytes contain the genes to specify tadpole development, and conditioning these nuclei in the cytoplasm of oocytes leads to a widespread reactivation of dormant genes.