Comparative Studies on Experimental Formation of Multinucleated Eggs of Sea Urchins by Means of Various Agents

It is a well-known fact that nuclear division is usually accompanied by cell division or cleavage.But under certain conditions the former takes place without the latter, and consequently so-called syncytia are formed.Since the early work of 0. and R. HERTWIG (1887), numerous agents have been found to be effective for inducing the formation of syncytia in eggs of sea urchins.WILSON (1901) and POLOWZOW (1924), for instance, found that nuclear division without cytoplasmic division took place under the influence of narcotics such as ether or alcohol.Recently, the author found that surface active substances, such as detergents, have similar effects.Studying comparatively the formation of multinucleated eggs by means of narcotics and of surface active substances, it was found that there are some differences in the mode of action between these two groups of reagents.Since these findings seem to pose certain interesting problems as to the mechanism of cell division, they will be presented here.