Heavy ion irradiation-induced cell cycle arrest in multinuclear silkworm egg having non-damaged and damaged nuclei

Ueda, Daisuke*; Funayama, Tomoo; Yokota, Yuichiro; Suzuki, Michiyo; Sakashita, Tetsuya; Kobayashi, Yasuhiko; Shirai, Koji*

The occurrence of DNA damage-induced cell cycle arrest is consider to depend on the amount and/or seriousness of DNA damage. However, the detailed mechanisms have been obscure. When whole egg of the silkworm in early embryogenesis was subjected to carbon ions, the developmental arrest was observed, however, about 2 hours after irradiation, the mitotic cleavage resumed, indicating the eggs at this stage can induce the cell cycle arrest by checkpoints after irradiation. On the other hand, the locally targeted irradiation with carbon-ion microbeam to 10% of the nuclei was not able to induce the developmental arrest. In the egg, several of abnormal cleaved nuclei were observed, which are considered to be the irradiated nuclei that stop their cleavage. Meanwhile, when 30-40% of nuclei were irradiated, the embryonic development stopped. The result indicate the checkpoint-induced arrest of the silkworm egg at intralecithal cleavage stage may depend on number or ratio of the damaged nuclei.