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We present a method for the generation of in vitro self-sustained mitotic oscillations at the single-cell level by encapsulating egg extracts of Xenopus laevis in water-in-oil microemulsions.
Real-time measurement of oscillations at the single-cell level is important to uncover the mechanisms of biological clocks. Although bulk extracts prepared from Xenopus laevis eggs have been powerful in dissecting biochemical networks underlying the cell-cycle progression, their ensemble average measurement typically leads to a damped oscillation, despite each individual oscillator being sustained. This is due to the difficulty of perfect synchronization among individual oscillators in noisy biological systems. To retrieve the single-cell dynamics of the oscillator, we developed a droplet-based artificial cell system that can reconstitute mitotic cycles in cell-like compartments encapsulating cycling cytoplasmic extracts of Xenopus laevis eggs. These simple cytoplasmic-only cells exhibit sustained oscillations for over 30 cycles. To build more complicated cells with nuclei, we added demembranated sperm chromatin to trigger nuclei self-assembly in the system. We observed a periodic progression of chromosome condensation/decondensation and nuclei envelop breakdown/reformation, like in real cells. This indicates that the mitotic oscillator functions faithfully to drive multiple downstream mitotic events. We simultaneously tracked the dynamics of the mitotic oscillator and downstream processes in individual droplets using multi-channel time-lapse fluorescence microscopy. The artificial cell-cycle system provides a high-throughput framework for quantitative manipulation and analysis of mitotic oscillations with single-cell resolution, which likely provides important insights into the regulatory machinery and functions of the clock.
Cytoplasmic extracts prepared from Xenopus laevis eggs represent one of the most predominant models for the biochemical study of cell cycles, given the large volume of oocytes, the rapid cell cycle progression, and the capability of reconstituting mitotic events in vitro1,2. This system has allowed the initial discovery and mechanistic characterization of essential cell-cycle regulators like maturation-promoting factor (MPF) as well as downstream mitotic processes including spindle assembly and chromosome segregation1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. The Xenopus egg extracts have also been used for detailed dissection of the regulatory networks of the cell cycle clock8,12,13,14 and for studies of the DNA damage/replication checkpoint15 and the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint16,17,18.
These studies of cell cycles using the Xenopus egg extracts have mainly been based on bulk measurements. However, conventional bulk reaction assays may not mimic real cell behaviors, given a major discrepancy in their dimensions and subcellular spatial compartmentalization of reaction molecules. Moreover, bulk measurements of mitotic activities are prone to giving a limited number of cycles before quickly damping8. These disadvantages of bulk reactions have prevented the extract system to provide further understanding of complex clock dynamic properties and functions. Recent studies have encapsulated cell-free cytostatic factor-arrested (CSF) Xenopus extracts19,20 into size-defined cell-like compartments, which have helped elucidate how spindle size is modulated by the cytoplasmic volume. However, this in vitro system is arrested at metaphase of meiosis II by the action of cytostatic factor1, and a system capable of long-term sustained oscillations at the single-cell level is needed for further investigation of the cell cycle oscillator.
To study cell cycle oscillations with single-cell resolution, we have developed a cell-scale, high-throughput system for reconstitution and simultaneous measurement of multiple self-sustained mitotic oscillatory processes in individual microemulsion droplets. In this detailed video protocol, we demonstrate the creation of the artificial mitotic oscillation system by encapsulating cycling Xenopus laevis egg cytoplasm in microemulsions of sizes ranging from 10 to 300 µm. In this system, mitotic oscillations including chromosome condensation and de-condensation, nuclear envelope breakdown and reformation, and the degradation and synthesis of anaphase substrates (e.g., securin-mCherry in this protocol) were successfully reconstituted.
All methods described here have been approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) of University of Michigan.
1. Preparation of Materials for Cell Cycle Reconstitution and Detection
2. Preparation of Cycling Xenopus Extracts
NOTE: The overall procedure of preparing the extracts is illustrated in Figure 1A. Adapted from Murray 19911.
3. Droplet Generation
4. Image Processing and Data Analysis
In Figure 2, we show that this protocol produces mitotic oscillations in both simple, nuclear-free cells as well as complicated cells with nuclei, where the oscillator drives the cyclic alternation of nuclei formation and deformation. The nuclei-free droplets generate mitotic oscillations up to 30 undamped cycles over the time span of 92 hours, as indicated by the periodic synthesis and degradation of a fluorescence reporter securin-mCherry (
We have presented a novel method for developing a high-throughput artificial cell system that enables in vitro reconstitution and long-term tracking of self-sustained cell-cycle oscillations at the single-cell level. There are several critical steps that make this method successful. First, freshly squeezed Xenopus eggs with a good quality, compared with laid eggs, tend to produce extracts with longer-lasting oscillation activity. Second, encapsulation of extracts within the surfactant-stabilized microen...
We have nothing to disclose.
We thank Madeleine Lu for constructing securin-mCherry plasmid, Lap Man Lee, Kenneth Ho and Allen P Liu for discussions about droplet generation, Jeremy B. Chang and James E. Ferrell Jr for providing GFP-NLS construct. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Early CAREER Grant #1553031), the National Institutes of Health (MIRA #GM119688), and a Sloan Research Fellowship.
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Xenopus laevis frogs | Xenopus-I Inc. | ||
QIAprep spin miniprep kit | QIAGEN | 27104 | |
QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (250) | QIAGEN | 28106 | |
mMESSAGE mMACHINE SP6 Transcription Kit | Ambion | AM1340 | |
BL21 (DE3)-T-1 competent cell | Sigma-Aldrich | B2935 | |
Calcium ionophore | Sigma-Aldrich | A23187 | |
Hoechst 33342 | Sigma-Aldrich | B2261 | Toxic |
Trichloro | Sigma-Aldrich | 448931 | Toxic |
(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl) silane | |||
PFPE-PEG surfactant | Ran Biotechnologies | 008-FluoroSurfactant-2wtH-50G | |
GE Healthcare Glutathione Sepharose 4B beads | Sigma-Aldrich | GE17-0756-01 | |
PD-10 column | Sigma-Aldrich | GE17-0851-01 | |
VitroCom miniature hollow glass tubing | VitroCom | 5012 | |
Olympus SZ61 Stereo Microscope | Olympus | ||
Olympus IX83 microscope | Olympus | ||
Olympus FV1200 confocal microscope | Olympus | ||
NanoDrop spectrophotometer | Thermofisher | ND-2000 | |
0.4 mL Snap-Cap Microtubes | E&K Scientific | 485050-B | |
PureLink RNA Mini Kit | ThermoFisher(Ambion) | 12183018A | |
Fisherbrand Analog Vortex Mixer | Fisher Scientific | 2215365 | |
Imaris | Bitplane | Version 7.3 | Image analysis software |
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