Division of polar bodies induced by their enlargement in the starfish Asterina pectinifera.

The first polar body (FPB), which is formed at the first meiotic division during oogenesis, does not generally divide. We made a hypothesis that the amount of cytoplasm was not sufficient for the FPB to perform cell division, in spite of the same amount of genomes and centrosome as those of the secondary oocyte. To examine this hypothesis, hexylene glycol (HG) at a low concentration was applied to oocytes of the starfish Asterina pectinifera during the first meiotic division. Hence, FPBs were enlarged in their diameters, some of them divided once, and the division rate increased in proportion as their diameter extended. We further hypothesized that the difference between the second polar body (SPB) and the egg would be only the amount of cytoplasm and that if SPBs were enlarged, they would become eggs. When the secondary oocytes were treated with HG, large SPBs were obtained. Some of them, however, divided, and resultant daughter cells divided moreover, whereas eggs would not cleave unless they were fertilized. We discuss here the reason why the centrosome distributed during maturation division began to function in enlarged PBs.