Ramos, Carl | Ramos, Diego | Ramos, Rollene | Samonte, Dana Z303L

4BIOLOGY6
GROUP 8

EXERCISE 2
GUIDE QUESTIONS

1. What characteristics of an Ascaris (an invertebrate) egg make them important to

study in a course on Comparative Vertebrate Embryology?
Ascaris egg is an important experimental organism to early embryology for these
eggs are obtainable in large numbers, they are transparent, facilitating observation by
light microscopy, they can be stored in their original dormant state and their
development initiated synchronously by high temperature or acid shock; and the pattern
and timing of their embryonic cleavages are invariant from embryo to embryo.

2. Give the basic morphological difference between an Ascaris ovum in the two-cell
stage of development and an Ascaris ovum in the fusion stage. What makes the
two stages confusing for a beginner in Embryology?
An Ascaris ovum in the 2-cell stage represents a single cleavage of the cell into
two parts. At a glance, it may seem to look like an Ascaris ovum in the fusion stage, for
there the male and female pronuclei, which are darkly and lightly stained respectively,
fuse together at that point before cleavage starts.

3. How can you easily differentiate a male and female pronucleus?

The male pronuclei is darkly stained and bigger in size than the female pronuclei
when you look at them under the microscope. And female pronuclei is lightly stained and
smaller in size than male pronuclei.

4. Under the microscope, how can a fertilized egg and unfertilized egg be
differentiated?
Under the microscope, the unfertilized egg may be distinguished from the
fertilized egg by its prominent nucleus (with nucleolus). The vitelline envelope is intact,
which when fertilization in starfish follows, it then forms the fertilization membrane. The
fertilization membrane can be observed under the microscope and can only be seen in
fertilized eggs.