Nuclear and mitotic abnormalities produced by cycloheximide in the newt egg during cleavage and their relationship to the cell cycle.

In cleaving newt eggs short-lasting treatments with millimolar quantities of cycloheximide (1/2, 1/3, 1/6 cycle) produce, after 6 h recovery, nuclear and mitotic abnormalities which are less drastic, but similar to those produced by treatments lasting 6 h. Special disturbances of the spindle and asters are different from those produced by spindle inhibitors (reduction in size of the asters and of the number of poles by nucleus, usual suppression of the spindle, failure of cytokinesis, separation of asters from nuclei). But the structure of nuclei is different according to the time when the treatment started (telophasic when it begun at anaphase or telophase, prophasic when begun at prophase). The difference in percentage of these two types of nuceli is highly significant and independent of the time passed after the beginning of the treatment. Each nucleus has to complete the whole cycle before the effect can be stopped.