ISSN:
0362-2525
Keywords:
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
The spongillid freshwater sponges asexually produce an encapsulated dormant stage, the gemmule. With release from dormancy, internal, yolk-laden, binucleate thesocytes differentiate into histoblasts or archeocytes. The histoblasts emerging first from the gemmule form the initial pinacoderm of the hatching sponge. Immunohistochemistry was employed to examine the distribution of cyclic GMP (cGMP) and cyclic AMP (cAMP) following dormancy release and during gemmule germination and hatching in the freshwater sponge, Spongilla lacustris L. Cyclic nucleotide fluorescence patterns were analyzed in relation to the distribution of cytochemically demonstrable macromolecular constituents and intracellular organelles. Twenty-four hours following temperature-activated release from dormancy, cGMP fluorescence levels are elevated in thesocytes at the gemmule periphery prior to histoblast formation. The cAMP fluorescence in the gemmule also occurs first in those thesocytes differentiating into histoblasts. Cytochemical patterns in germinating gemmules are comparable with those described by Ruthmann ('65) and Tessenow ('69). However, cytochemically demonstrable events of cytodifferentiation follow the earlier appearance of cGMP and cAMP in the histoblast precursors by approximately 12 hours. In addition, cGMP appears to be associated with the membranes of cytoplasmic organelles, possibly lysosomes or lipid inclusions, in the region of vitelline platelets and with symbiotic algae. cAMP is located primarily on the membranes of the vitelline platelets and on membranes of vacuoles involved in forming the spicular skeleton These observations suggest that cGMP and cAMP are involved in the mobilization of nutrient reserves and in ion transport during dormancy release and development from gemmules in freshwater sponges.
Additional Material:
13 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1051670106
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