Lipid modification and meiotic cell cycle regulation

【摘要】：正Maternal factors play important roles during early animal development.One of the major functions of maternal factors is to regulate meiotic cell cycle during oogenesis.We report here a maternal gene Xlacs,whose mRNA is tightly localized in the vegetal cortex of Xenopus oocytes.XLACS is a putative long chain fatty acyl-CoA synthetase,whose major products may include palmitoyl-CoA, myristoyl-CoA and oleoyl-CoA.Depletion of Xlacs mRNA by antisense oligos blocks the first cell cleavage of fertilized eggs,suggesting that Xlacs is essential for cell cycle progression.The blockage may be resulted from abnormal acceleration of G2/M transition during Xenopus meiosis,which was observed by the depletion.The acceleration can be rescued by co-injection of in vitro transcribed Xlacs mRNAs, suggesting the enzyme activity of XLACS is required for controlled release G2 oocytes into M phase.We propose that XLACS may negatively regulate cell cycle progression during the meiosis in Xenopus.