ISSN:
1550-7408
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Biology
Notes:
SYNOPSIS. In Tokophrya infusionum metamorphosis from a ciliated swimming embryo to a sessile organism with a stalk, disc, and tentacles lasts only 3 minutes. The remarkable speed of meta-morphosis was clarified by an electron-microscope study of embryos before and during metamorphosis. Ultrathin sections have revealed that the embryo has at the anterior end of the body a number of specialized structures, such as dense bodies containing the precursor material for the disc and stalk, and microtubules which align the dense bodies into rows leading to pit-kite invaginations of the pellicle at the tip of the anterior end. At meta-morphosis the embryo settles down on this end and the precursor material is released thru the pits to the outside. At the same time the body of the embryo invaginates at this end, forming a cavity which becomes deeper and narrower until it acquires the shape of a channel. The 1st drops released from the dense bodies spread out on the substrate, forming the disc. The rest of the material, secreted into the channel, solidifies there to form the stalk. It seems obvious that the channel serves as a mold for the stalk, since after completion of the stalk the channel disappears. The stalk is structureless with no limiting membrane; it is outside the boundaries of the cell. Both the stalk and disc are extra-cellular organelles.Of the new organelles appearing at metamorphosis, only the stalk and disc are formed de novo. The electron-microscope study disclosed that the embryo has internal parts of tentacles composed of a tube formed of microtubules. At the distal end of the microtubules is a ring of dense material. During metamorphosis the microtubules, together with the dense ring, grow out of the body, and along with them the pellicle and plasma membrane to form the external part of the tentacle.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1550-7408.1970.tb02377.x
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