Cleavage pattern can be altered by compressing embryos under a coverslip, forcing all cleavages to occur in the same plane. This technique can be used to address how important specific oriented divisions are for normal development in a variety of species. The QuickTime movie on this page was generated in the Hardin laboratory, and shows how cleavage is altered at the 3rd cleavage by pressure.
Cleaving 4-cell zygote compressed under a coverslip.
