Ultrastructural study and cytochemical investigation, by means of enzyme–gold complexes, of the fungus Ascocalyx abietina

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Benhamou ◽  
G. B. Ouellette

The fungus Ascocalyx abietina (Lagerberg.) Schlaepfer-Bernhard, the scleroderris canker agent of conifers, is composed of a regularly septate mycelium, often branched at divergent angles. All fungal cells appear delimited by a thick wall surrounded by a dense fibrillar network. Peculiar ultrastructural characteristics of this fungus were observed, such as irregular nuclei with multishaped blebs and endoplasmic reticulum oriented in definite parallel arrays. Presence of single or multiple endocells was frequently observed. In some instances, gaps were present in the walls of enclosing cells where the cytoplasmic contents had escaped. Amylase, chitinase, β-galactosidase, lipase, and cellulose–gold complexes were used to localize various substances in A. abietina cells. With such complexes N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, β-galactosides, and lipids were detected in the cell walls, while glycogen deposits were found to occur in cytoplasmic electron-transparent bodies. The present work presents the ultrastructural features of A. abietina and adds to some of the cytochemical aspects recently reported.

1980 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-231
Author(s):  
L. Pellegrini

Physodes have been recognized in meristodermic and promeristematic cells by correlated light- and electron-microscope investigations using different fixation procedures. They are vesicles which contain an osmiophilic material of phenolic nature. Their content changes in appearence according to the fixative used. Osmiophilic deposits are often associated with coiled and disturbed lamellar formations. It has been possible to distinguish several ultrastructural stages which occur during the secretion of the content of the physodes, namely: a chloroplast accumulation and exudation, and a reticular transport to accumulation vacuoles where materials undergo evolution or hydrolysis. Inside plastids, osmiophilic granules are found in close association with thylakoid stacks. They may contain the polyphenolic precursors of physodes, though this has not yet been proved by electron-microscopy procedures. They are expelled from plastids to the chloroplast endoplasmic reticulum. The mechanism of transfer through the chloroplast envelope endoplasmic reticulum. The mechanism of transfer through the chloroplast envelope remains to be elucidated. Lytic activities have been reported inside physodes which might thus act in the same way as the secondary lysosomes of animals and higher plants. Occasionally, the physode content seems to be excreted from the cytoplasm to the cell walls by exocytosis after the probable fusion of plasmalemma and tonoplast. These cytological changes, observed in the vegetative apex of a brown alga, recall some ultrastructural characteristics of the secretory processes described in various glandular tissues of higher plants and which consist of the synthesis, the transport and the elimination of an exudate of flavonic, terpenic or lipophenolic nature.


Author(s):  
Randy Moore

Cell and tissue interactions are a basic aspect of eukaryotic growth and development. While cell-to-cell interactions involving recognition and incompatibility have been studied extensively in animals, there is no known antigen-antibody reaction in plants and the recognition mechanisms operating in plant grafts have been virtually neglected.An ultrastructural study of the Sedum telephoides/Solanum pennellii graft was undertaken to define possible mechanisms of plant graft incompatibility. Grafts were surgically dissected from greenhouse grown plants at various times over 1-4 weeks and prepared for EM employing variations in the standard fixation and embedding procedure. Stock and scion adhere within 6 days after grafting. Following progressive cell senescence in both Sedum and Solanum, the graft interface appears as a band of 8-11 crushed cells after 2 weeks (Fig. 1, I). Trapped between the buckled cell walls are densely staining cytoplasmic remnants and residual starch grains, an initial product of wound reactions in plants.


Author(s):  
S.R. Allegra

The respective roles of the ribo somes, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus and perhaps nucleus in the synthesis and maturation of melanosomes is still the subject of some controversy. While the early melanosomes (premelanosomes) have been frequently demonstrated to originate as Golgi vesicles, it is undeniable that these structures can be formed in cells in which Golgi system is not found. This report was prompted by the findings in an essentially amelanotic human cellular blue nevus (melanocytoma) of two distinct lines of melanocytes one of which was devoid of any trace of Golgi apparatus while the other had normal complement of this organelle.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 1950090
Author(s):  
HAIXIA YU ◽  
XIN PAN ◽  
WEIMING YANG ◽  
WENFU ZHANG ◽  
XIAOWEI ZHUANG

Bamboo material is widely used in outdoor applications. However, they are easily degraded when exposed to sunlight, their smooth surface will gradually turn to rough, and small cracks will appear and finally develop to large cracks. The paper presents a first-time investigation on the microstructure changes in the tangential section of Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel) radiated by artificial UV light. The results showed that the cracks mainly appeared at intercellular spaces of fibers where lignin content was high, the parenchyma cell walls and neighbor pits where the cell wall was very thin and more vulnerable than the other parts. In addition, the part of raised area and pit cavity tended to absorb more UV light radiation and showed more and larger cracks than the otherwhere. Cracks at the intercellular spaces of fibers were larger and bigger than those on the parenchyma cell walls. The cracks on the pits of the parenchyma cell walls normally appeared at one pit and then extended to the several surrounding pits. Bordered pits cavity showed more and larger cracks than the pits on the thin wall cells. The simple pits on the thick wall cells and the fiber cells were unaffected by UV radiation.


The cell walls of a number of marine algae, namely species of Bryopsis, Caulerpa, Udotea, Halimeda and Penicillus and of one freshwater alga, Dichotomosiphon , are examined using both chemical and physical techniques. It is shown that, with the possible exception of Bryopsis , cellulose is completely absent and that the walls contain instead β -l,3-linked xylan as the structural polysaccharide. Bryopsis contains, in addition, a glucan which is most abundant in the outer layers of the wall and which stains like cellulose. The xylan is microfibrillar but the microfibrils are more strongly adherent than they are in cellulose, and in some species appear in the electron microscope to be joined by short crossed rod-like bodies. The orientation of the microfibrils is found to vary, ranging from a net tendency to transverse orientation through complete randomness to almost perfect longitudinal alinement. The microfibrils are negatively birefringent, so that all walls seen in optical section, and all parallel arrays of microfibrils whether in face view or in section (except strictly transverse section) are negatively birefringent. With Bryopsis , the negative birefringence in face view is overcompensated by the positive birefringence of the incrusting glucan so that the true birefringence of the crystalline polysaccharide is observed only after the glucan is removed. The X-ray diagram of parallel arrays of microfibrils as found, for instance, in Penicillus dumetosus shows that the xylan chains are helically coiled, in harmony with the negative birefringence. It is deduced that the microfibrils consist of hexagonally packed, double-stranded helices. The diameter of the helices increases with increasing relative humidity, as water is taken into the lattice, from 13.7 Å in material dried over phosphorus pentoxide to a maximum of 1.54 Å at 65 % relative humidity when the xylan contains 30 % of its weight as water. The repeat distance along the helix axis ranges from 5.85 Å (dry) to 6.06 Å (wet), the length of a half turn of each helix containing three xylose residues. The incrusting substances in these walls often include a glucan which is said also to be 1,3-linked. The significance of the extensive differences between this xylan and cellulose are examined both as regards some of the physical properties of the respective cell walls and in relation to the taxonomic position of these plants.


1974 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-443
Author(s):  
K. WRIGHT ◽  
D. J. BOWLES

Changes have been induced in the polysaccharides laid down in the cell walls of lettuce pith by administration of the hormones auxin and zeatin. This polysaccharide derives from the membrane systems of the cells and radioactive precursor has been used to follow the accompanying changes which occurred in the polysaccharide contained within isolated Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum fractions. Zeatin-induced division and differentiation was accompanied by up to 12-fold increases in the amount of radioactivity in polysaccharide of isolated membrane fractions, and the pattern of distribution of label between the sugars of this polysaccharide was qualitatively different in the presence of zeatin. The change in this pattern was evident in the Golgi fraction at an earlier stage in the induction of the response than that in the endoplasmic reticulum.


1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 987-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Roth

A method is described for the electron microscopic detection of lectin-binding sites in different cellular compartments and extracellular structures that uses thin sections from resin-embedded tissues. Various lectins (Ricinus communis lectin I and II, peanut lectin, Lotus tetragonolobus lectin, Ulex europeus lectin I, Lens culinaris lectin, Helix pomatia lectin, and soybean lectin) were bound to particles of colloidal gold and used for direct staining of thin sections or glycoprotein--gold complexes were prepared and applied in an indirect technique (concanavalin A and horseradish peroxidase--gold complex; wheat germ lectin and ovomucoid--gold complex). The details for preparation of such complexes from 14 nm gold particles are reported. The conditions of tissue processing that gave satisfactory staining results and good fine structure preservation were mild aldehyde fixation without osmification and low temperature embedding with the hydrophilic resin Lowicryl K4M. None of the so-called etching procedures was necessary prior to labeling of Lowicryl K4M thin sections. Examples of the use of this approach for detection of glycoconjugates in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, and mucin of intestinal goblet cells as well as plasma membrane and various intracellular structures of absorptive intestinal and renal tubular cells are shown. A comparison is made with preembedding staining results on Concanavalin A-binding site localization in rat liver which shows that problems of penetration common in such a technique are circumvented by the postembedding approach described here. Concanavalin A-binding sites were not only consistently found in nuclear envelope, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, plasma membranes, and collagen fibers, but also in mitochondria, glycogen, ribosomes, and nucleus. These data and those of a previous investigation (Roth J, Cytochem 31:547, 1983) prove the applicability of this cytochemical technique for postembedding localization of glycoconjugates by light and electron microscopy.


1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1039-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. Polowick ◽  
V. K. Sawhney

Microspores undergo considerable ultrastructural changes between the tetrad and early binucleate microspore stages of microsporogenesis in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Pollen wall deposition began late in the tetrad stage, and by the early microspore stage a lamellar foot layer and tectum were deposited. Sculpturing of the tectum was evident by the early binucleate microspore stage. Dictyosomes and vesicles were abundant during the period of pollen wall formation. Plastids were associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to form plastid–ER complexes, from the late tetrad to the vacuolate microspore stage. At the vacuolate microspore stage, endoplasmic reticulum independent of plastids was also observed, and at the early binucleate microspore stage ER was not associated with plastids. Free ribosomes were evenly distributed throughout the cytoplasm until the vacuolate microspore stage when they were organized into polysomes. Mitochondria were spherical to ellipsoid, with an electron-dense matrix and swollen cristae, until the early binucleate microspore stage when they were highly elongate and became convoluted. Key words: Lycopersicon esculentum, microsporogenesis, pollen development, tetrads, tomato, ultrastructure.


1980 ◽  
Vol 58 (22) ◽  
pp. 2367-2379
Author(s):  
Monique Colson

Osmic fixation was used in an ultrastructural study of Allium cepa seeds, both in the quiescent state and at the beginning of imbibition, in order to complete earlier observations made after glutaraldehyde fixation. In embryonic radicles, various groups of weakly stained lamellar structures looked like endoplasmic reticulum profiles. In these quiescent tissues, osmic fixation revealed many vesicles which appeared to be atypical elements of endoplasmic reticulum.In the first few hours of imbibition, reactive structures were more numerous and more diverse. Cisternae and vesicles of endoplasmic reticulum became typical looking, such as classically described in active tissues of other species.When Allium cepa seeds were treated with liquid nitrogen (−196 °C), induced structural alterations depended on the initial state of hydration. Lamellar systems underwent morphological changes. Osmic fixation showed the presence of numerous opaque globules throughout the cytoplasm. These globules seemed to derive from cisternae that appeared to have become fragmented during freezing. [Journal translation]


1966 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimon Klein ◽  
Yehuda Ben-Shaul

Changes in cell fine structure were studied in axes of green lima bean seeds soaked in water for 1–48 hours. At the beginning of the imbibition period the cortical and pith cells and to a smaller degree the cells of the future conductive tissues contain several vacuoles filled with an amorphous substance. Almost all of the cells contain lipid droplets arranged exclusively along cell walls. The endoplasmic reticulum appears in the form of long tubules, predominantly occupying the peripheral parts of the cell, surrounding the nucleus. A large concentration of ribosomes, mostly unattached, can be found in the cytoplasm. Similar particles make up the bulk of the nucleolus, but could not be found in plastids, which frequently contained starch, but were devoid of internal membranes. Only very few Golgi bodies occur. No changes in fine structure seem to occur during the first 4 hours of imbibition, but after 24 hours the lipid droplets and the vacuolar content have disappeared, the endoplasmic reticulum is more evenly distributed throughout the cells, and a large number of Golgi bodies can be seen.


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