Cytochemical Studies on the Second Gradient Axis of Fertilized Oyster Eggs

II. On the distribution of glycogen and lipids

Abstract

Eggs of Gryphaea (Crassostrea) gigas (Thunberg) were used at their early stages of growth when the polar bodies had not yet been formed. Lipids and glycogen were detected cytochemically. It is worth mentioning that the distribution of both glycogen and unsaturated lipids agrees with the second physiological gradient axis in fertilized eggs. This fact suggests that such a creative area as will shift the germinal vesicle and will increase the metabolic activity under the control of the nucleus, may exist in the cytoplasm near the animal pole.