Figure 1.

Diagram of a coiled body from a Xenopus GV and a list of some of its molecular components. The coiled body consists of three parts: a matrix, B-snurposomes attached to the surface, and B-like inclusions. The number of attached B-snurposomes and inclusions is variable, and they may be absent. The attached B-snurposomes are identical in all respects to the hundreds of free B-snurposomes in the nucleoplasm. The inclusions are generally smaller than B-snurposomes but are otherwise identical. The terms coiled body and sphere are used synonymously. In some previous publications (Wu et al., 1996), the term C-snurposome referred to the matrix and inclusions only.