The incorporation of 14C-adenine into the oocytes of Asellus aquaticus as studied by autoradiography

Abstract

Asellus aquaticus females were injected with 8-14C-adenine, fixed after 3 hours and sectioned. In coated autoradiographs, the number of β-tracks from 14C were counted over nucleolus, nucleus and cytoplasm of the oocytes at various stages of their development. Incorporation into nucleolar RNA, being high at all stages, was found to be especially prominent in two phases of the oocyte's development. These phases were tentatively connected with, respectively, the onset of yolk formation in the cytoplasm and the full maturation of the oocyte.