SPERMATOCYTE GRANULES IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Erickson ◽  
A. B. Acton

Granular inclusions are found in testes from a cn bw stock of Drosophila melanogaster, and maternally derived lines, such as SD. In late larval and early pupal stages, these granules show a polarized distribution within primary spermatocytes corresponding to the polarity basic to the type of meiotic drive where certain homologues reach that pole of the spermatocyte leading to functional sperm. In adult males, the granules are found in intercellular patches in the testes. Electron microscopy shows the spermatocyte granules to be spheroids of about 0.7 μ; dividing, or double forms resulting from division, are about 1.8 μ long. They contain numbers of ribosome-like particles and fine strands presumed to be DNA. The acridine orange test for nucleic acids was positive. Each granule is surrounded by two layers of unit membrane and a third such membrane envelopes the individual or the pair of granules, as the case may be. The third membrane layer (and additional membranes sometimes seen) is thought to be due to entrance of the granules into the host cell through the cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum. Transmission of the granules is strictly maternal and independent of chromosome constitution. Transmission by contagion was not found. Spermatocyte granules are not requisite to the effectiveness of the SD meiotic drive system, which regularly carries them. A slightly lowered fertility of females carrying the granules was found but no similar effect is produced in males. The evidence suggests that they are parasitic organisms, probably Rickettsiae.


1965 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 795-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lothar Diers

The formation and maturation of the egg of the liverwort, Sphaerocarpus donnellii, was investigated by light, phase contrast and particularly by electron microscopy. The division of the central cell into the egg and the ventral canal cell, and the maturation of the egg, is completed within four days. All stages of this formation and maturation were examined under the electron microscope after fixation in KMnO4 or OsO4. — In the maturing egg there always occur the endoplasmic reticulum, well recognisable plastids with a poorly developed lamellar system, numerous mitochondria and dictyosomes, a rising number of lipid droplets, unknown small bodies limited by a unit membrane, and numerous ribosomes. During maturation the nucleus considerably enlarges and forms evaginations into the cytoplasm. Starch is increasingly deposited in the plastids. A degeneration of plastids has not been found.



2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Cardoso Magno ◽  
Lorian Cobra Straker ◽  
Wanderley de Souza ◽  
Marcia Attias

Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, is capable of actively penetrating and multiplying in any nucleated cell of warm-blooded animals. Its survival strategies include escape from fusion of the parasitophorous vacuole with host cell lysosomes and rearrangement of host cell organelles in relation to the parasitophorous vacuole. In this article we report the rearrangement of host cell organelles and elements of the cytoskeleton of LLCMK2 cells, a lineage derived from green monkey kidney epithelial cells, in response to infection byT. gondiitachyzoites. Transmission electron microscopy made on flat embedded monolayers cut horizontally to the apical side of the cells or field emission scanning electron microscopy of monolayers scraped with scotch tape before sputtering showed that association of mitochondria to the vacuole is much less frequent than previously described. On the other hand, all parasitophorous vacuoles were surrounded by elements of the endoplasmic reticulum. These data were complemented by observations by laser scanning microscopy using fluorescent probes from mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum and reinforced by three-dimensional reconstruction from serial sections observed by transmission electron microscopy and labeling of mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum by fluorescent probes.



Author(s):  
T. N. Tahmisian ◽  
E. J. Ainsworth

Studies are in progress to characterize a transmissible leukemia and the causal agent which is presumably viral. The neoplasm, originally isolated from an aged irradiated B6CF1, mouse, has been transmitted in irradiated (200 R; 250 kVp X rays) weanling mice by intraperitoneal injection of millipore filtered (0.45μ) supernatant from spleen cell suspensions. At 22 days after filtrate injection in syngeneic mice, spleen, lymph nodes, and thymus were removed and prepared for electron microscopy to determine the presence of virus and morphology of viral development.The ultrastructure of cells from the above organs showed viral infection by a murine type leukemia virus with many “C” type buds 90 to 110nm formed in the cisternae of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (Fig. 1). The limiting membrane of the “C” type virus, apparently isolating it from the cytoplasm, is the unit membrane from the rough endoplasmic reticulum. The viral membrane is not invariably intact.



Perception ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 667-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Hillman ◽  
Peter Sartory

It is shown on the basis of solid geometry that the trilaminar appearance of membranes described by Robertson must be an artefact, although the membranes themselves are not. However, considerations of solid geometry as well as observations on living cells indicate that the endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear pores are artefacts resulting from preparation for electron microscopy. Suggestions for their genesis are proposed.



1963 ◽  
Vol s3-104 (65) ◽  
pp. 135-140
Author(s):  
S. AHMAD SHAFIQ

The tracheoblasts associated with the flight-muscles of Drosophila were studied by electron microscopy. During the developmental stages the cytoplasm of such tracheoblasts shows extensive membrane structures arranged in whorls. It seems that these membranes become aligned in pairs, spread out in tracheoblast cytoplasm, and form the walls of the new tracheolar vessels. The membranous whorls appear to have no obvious relationship with the usual endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus or plasma membranes. They are probably produced from certain large granules distributed irregularly in the cytoplasm of the young tracheoblasts. Membranes limiting the tracheoles from the tracheoblast cytoplasm (the so-called mestracheons) are not usually seen in the younger stages. They are sometimes seen after the cuticular lining of the tracheoles has been formed.



Genetics ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-634
Author(s):  
W J Peacock ◽  
George L Gabor Miklos ◽  
D J Goodchild

ABSTRACT The meiotic drive characteristics of the In(1)sc4Lsc8R/Y system have been examined by genetic analysis and by light and electron microscopy. sc4sc8/Y males show a direct correlation between nondisjunction frequency and meiotic drive. Temperature-shift experiments reveal that the temperature-sensitive period for nondisjunction is at meiosis, whereas that for meiotic drive has both meiotic and post-meiotic components. Cytological analyses in the light and electron microscopes reveal failures in spermiogenesis in the testes of sc  4  sc  8 males. The extent of abnormal spermatid development increases as nondisjunction becomes more extreme.



Author(s):  
John P. Robinson ◽  
J. David Puett

Much work has been reported on the chemical, physical and morphological properties of urinary Tamm-Horsfall glycoprotein (THG). Although it was once reported that cystic fibrotic (CF) individuals had a defective THG, more recent data indicate that THG and CF-THG are similar if not identical.No studies on the conformational aspects have been reported on this glycoprotein using circular dichroism (CD). We examined the secondary structure of THG and derivatives under various conditions and have correlated these results with quaternary structure using electron microscopy.THG was prepared from normal adult males and CF-THG from a 16-year old CF female by the method of Tamm and Horsfall. CF female by the method of Tamm and Horsfall.



Author(s):  
Frederick A. Murphy ◽  
Alyne K. Harrison ◽  
Sylvia G. Whitfield

The bullet-shaped viruses are currently classified together on the basis of similarities in virion morphology and physical properties. Biologically and ecologically the member viruses are extremely diverse. In searching for further bases for making comparisons of these agents, the nature of host cell infection, both in vivo and in cultured cells, has been explored by thin-section electron microscopy.



Author(s):  
R. A. Turner ◽  
A. E. Rodin ◽  
D. K. Roberts

There have been many reports which establish a relationship between the pineal and sexual structures, including gonadal hypertrophy after pinealectomy, and gonadal atrophy after injection of pineal homogenates or of melatonin. In order to further delineate this relationship the pineals from 5 groups of female rats were studied by electron microscopy:ControlsPregnant ratsAfter 4 weekly injections of 0.1 mg. estradiol benzoate.After 8 daily injections of 150 mcgm. melatonin (pineal hormone).After 8 daily injections of 3 mg. serotonin (melatonin precursor).No ultrastructural differences were evident between the control, and the pregnancy and melatonin groups. However, the estradiol injected animals exhibited a marked increase in the amount and size of rough endoplasmic reticulum within the pineal cells.



Author(s):  
J. C. Russ ◽  
E. McNatt

In order to study the retention of copper in cirrhotic liver, rats were made cirrhotic by carbon tetrachloride inhalation twice weekly for three months and fed 0.2% copper acetate ad libidum in drinking water for one month. The liver tissue was fixed in osmium, sectioned approximately 2000 Å thick, and stained with lead citrate. The section was examined in a scanning electron microscope (JEOLCO JSM-2) in the transmission electron mode.Figure 1 shows a typical area that includes a red blood cell in a sinusoid, a disse, and a portion of the cytoplasm of a hepatocyte which contains several mitochondria, peribiliary dense bodies, glycogen granules, and endoplasmic reticulum.



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