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A pulse of thimerosal (TMS), a sulfhydryl reagent, induces an instantaneous, complete and long-lasting microtubule interphasic network disassembly in mouse primary oocytes, correlated with the irreversible inhibition of meiosis reinitiation This inhibition is bypassed by dithiothreitol (DTT) while thiosalicylic acid, an analog of TMS, does induce neither microtubules depolymerisation nor inhibition of reinitiation and resumption of meiosis. This strongly suggests that the dramatic and pleiotropic inhibitory effect of TMS is specifically related to its sulfhydryl group oxidising activity of critical molecules among which tubulin. In contrast to DTT, okadaic acid (OA), known to bypass the inhibitory effect of drugs interfering with protein kinase activities, induces a late chromatin condensation and GVBD in TMS-pulsed oocytes as compared to the control situation, with no significant concomitant microtubule assembly. These cytological features are suggested to be indirectly induced by a late MAPK activation and confirm that a very early thiol oxidation induced by TMS exerts a much more dramatic effect on resumption of meiosis than any pharmacological manipulation of protein kinase activities leading to activation of MPF. Finally, taxol was shown to promote tubulin polymerisation even when microtubules were irreversibly disassembled by thiol oxidation but fails to restore the ability to undergo maturation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]