A light and electron microscopic study of mitosis in the clamp connection of Auricularia auricula-judae

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haisheng Lü ◽  
David J. McLaughlin

Nuclear behavior and mitotic division in living and fixed somatic hyphae of Auricularia auricula-judae were studied with phase-contrast, fluorescence, and electron microscopy to clarify the process of mitosis in Auriculariales sensu stricto for cytological and phylogenetic analysis. Both conventional chemical fixation and freeze-substitution methods were employed for electron microscopic analysis. Mitotic division began when one of the two nuclei was moving into the clamp and lasted about 12 – 18 min. The spindle pole body had an electron-opaque central core surrounded by an electron-transparent zone from prometaphase to anaphase. The spindle changed the orientation of its long axis from a position parallel to the long axis of the clamp or hypha in prometaphase, to an oblique position in early metaphase, and finally to a parallel position again in midmetaphase. The nuclear envelope was disrupted in prometaphase to early metaphase and showed discontinuity at both polar and central regions in late anaphase; however, in metaphase it was intact with polar fenestrations. Nuclear division in the dikaryotic hypha was asynchronous. The data obtained from mitosis in A. auricula-judae support a close relationship of Auriculariales s.str. with homobasidiomycetes. The phylogenetic significance of the nuclear division characters is analyzed. Key words: Auricularia auricula-judae, electron microscopy, light microscopy, mitosis, phylogeny.

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 1412-1423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry O'donnell

Mitosis in the wheat pathogen Tilletia caries (Basidiomycota, Tilletiales) was investigated by electron microscopy of serially sectioned, fast-frozen, freeze-substituted mitotic cells called ballistospores. A duplicated spindle pole body consisting of two identical, three-layered globular elements connected by a middle piece was attached to the extranuclear face of each nucleus at interphase. During mitosis, astral and spindle microtubules radiated from the globular elements that form the poles of an intranuclear spindle. At metaphase, chromosomes were interspersed with the nonkinetochore microtubules, and they were spread along the central two-thirds of the spindle. Each chromatid was attached to a spindle pole by a single, continuous, kinetochore microtubule. Postmitotic replication of the spindle pole body occurred during late telophase to interphase. Results from this study are presented in the form of a model of the mitotic spindle pole body cycle in Tilletia, and this model is compared with the one previously reported for Tilletia and other basidiomycetes. Key words: electron microscopy, freeze substitution, mitosis, spindle pole body, Tilletia.


1990 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-282
Author(s):  
T. Kanbe ◽  
Y. Hiraoka ◽  
K. Tanaka ◽  
M. Yanagida

A previous fluorescence light-microscopic study showed that the fission yeast cold-sensitive beta-tubulin mutant nda3-311 was arrested with rod-like condensed chromosomes in a mitotic state at the restrictive temperature. Upon transfer to the permissive temperature, a spindle was formed and the nucleus was divided. In the present study, we employed freeze-substitution electron microscopy to examine the ultrastructure of arrested and released nda3-311 cells. In arrested cells, a single, displaced nucleus was seen with a single spindle pole body. Therefore, spindle pole body duplication seemed to require functional beta-tubulin. The nuclear membrane was highly deformed with a leaf-like profile in cross-section, possibly due to an interaction with the rod-like, condensed chromosomes. Upon transfer to the permissive temperature, the spindle pole duplicated and the daughter spindle pole bodies rapidly migrated to the opposite ends of the nucleus, accompanied by the formation of the mitotic spindle. Elongation of the nuclear envelope occurred with concomitant spindle extension, as in a wild-type mitosis. The deformed nuclear membrane became smooth and described a convex curve. The numerous vacuoles that are seen in the arrested cells decreased in number and increased in size. Septation was completed, leaving the two divided nuclei in one half of the cell. Hexagonally arranged microtubules, apparently forming the mitotic spindle, were observed in a cross-section of a cell after return to the permissive conditions.


1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry O'Donnell

Meiosis in the smut fungi Ustilago maydis and Ustilago avenae (Basidiomycota, Ustilaginales) was studied by electron microscopy of serial-sectioned freeze substituted basidia. At prophase I, a spindle pole body composed of two globular elements connected by a middle piece was attached to the extranuclear surface of each nucleus. Astral and spindle microtubules were initiated at each globular element at late prophase I to prometaphase I. During spindle initiation, the middle piece disappeared and interdigitating half-spindles entered the nucleoplasm, which was surrounded by discontinuous nuclear envelope together with perinuclear endoplasmic reticulum. Kinetochore pairs at metaphase I were analyzed to obtain a karyotype for each species. The meiotic spindle pole body replicational cycle is described. Key words: electron microscopy, freeze-substitution, meiosis, Ustilago, spindle pole body.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 526-527
Author(s):  
Maryann E. Martone

One class of biological structures that has always presented special difficulties to scientists interested in quantitative analysis is comprised of extended structures that possess fine structural features. Examples of these structures include neuronal spiny dendrites and organelles such as the Golgi apparatus and endoplasmic reticulum. Such structures may extend 10's or even 100's of microns, a size range best visualized with the light microscope, yet possess fine structural detail on the order of nanometers that require the electron microscope to resolve. Quantitative information, such as surface area, volume and the micro-distribution of cellular constituents, is often required for the development of accurate structural models of cells and organelle systems and for assessing and characterizing changes due to experimental manipulation. Performing estimates of such quantities from light microscopic data can result in gross inaccuracies because the contribution to total morphometries of delicate features such as membrane undulations and excrescences can be quite significant. For example, in a recent study by Shoop et al, electron microscopic analysis of cultured chick ciliary ganglion neurons showed that spiny projections from the plasmalemma that were not well resolved in the light microscope effectively doubled the surface area of these neurons.While the resolution provided by the electron microscope has yet to be matched or replaced by light microscopic methods, one drawback of electron microscopic analysis has always been the relatively small sample size and limited 3D information that can be obtained from samples prepared for conventional transmission electron microscopy. Reconstruction from serial electron micrographs has provided one way to circumvent this latter problem, but remains one of the most technically demanding skills in electron microscopy. Another approach to 3D electron microscopic imaging is high voltage electron microscopy (HVEM). The greater accelerating voltages of HVEM's allows for the use of much thicker specimens than conventional transmission electron microscopes.


1974 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. H. Poon ◽  
A. W. Day

Somatic nuclear division in living cells is described under both phase-contrast and acridine orange fluorescence microscopy. The observations confirm a previous description of the division in fixed cells stained with acetic orcein. Acridine orange at the optimum concentration of 75–250 mg/liter complete medium clearly differentiated the nucleolus, chromatinic granules, nucleoplasm, and spindle pole body, as well as indicating changes in RNA content in the cytoplasm during budding. Acridine orange fluorescence was identical in both living and fixed cells. The fluorescence of the spindle pole body indicated that it contains DNA, which may initiate RNA synthesis. Time-lapse phase-contrast observations confirmed that neither the fixation technique nor acridine orange or acetic orcein staining caused noticeable artefacts during division, and provided indisputable evidence for the sequencing of stages. Estimates from the time-lapse observations indicated that the division is quite slow (about 45 min) and that 'prophase' takes about 12 min, 'metaphase' 5 min, and 'anaphase–telophase' about 28 min.


1994 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 853-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
M A Osborne ◽  
G Schlenstedt ◽  
T Jinks ◽  
P A Silver

The NUF2 gene of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes an essential 53-kd protein with a high content of potential coiled-coil structure similar to myosin. Nuf2 is associated with the spindle pole body (SPB) as determined by coimmunofluorescence with known SPB proteins. Nuf2 appears to be localized to the intranuclear region and is a candidate for a protein involved in SPB separation. The nuclear association of Nuf2 can be disrupted, in part, by 1 M salt but not by the detergent Triton X-100. All Nuf2 can be removed from nuclei by 8 M urea extraction. In this regard, Nuf2 is similar to other SPB-associated proteins including Nufl/SPC110, also a coiled-coil protein. Temperature-sensitive alleles of NUF2 were generated within the coiled-coil region of Nuf2 and such NUF2 mutant cells rapidly arrest after temperature shift with a single undivided or partially divided nucleus in the bud neck, a shortened mitotic spindle and their DNA fully replicated. In sum, Nuf2 is a protein associated with the SPB that is critical for nuclear division. Anti-Nuf2 antibodies also recognize a mammalian 73-kd protein and display centrosome staining of mammalian tissue culture cells suggesting the presence of a protein with similar function.


1986 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
K. Tanaka ◽  
T. Kanbe

Nuclear division in Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been studied in transmission electron micrographs of sections of cells fixed by a method of freeze-substitution. We have found cytoplasmic microtubules in the vicinity of the spindle pole bodies and two kinds of microtubules, short discontinuous ones and long, parallel ones in the intranuclear mitotic spindle. For most of the time taken by nuclear division the spindle pole bodies face each other squarely across the nuclear space but early in mitosis they briefly appear twisted out of alignment with each other, thereby imparting a sigmoidal shape to the bundle of spindle microtubules extending between them. This configuration is interpreted as indicating active participation of the spindle in the initial elongation of the dividing nucleus. It is proposed that mitosis is accompanied by the shortening of chromosomal microtubules simultaneously with the elongation of the central pole-to-pole bundle of microtubules of the intranuclear spindle. Daughter nuclei are separated by the sliding apart of interdigitating microtubules of the spindle at telophase. Some of the latter bear dense knobs at their ends.


Genetics ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
E O Shuster ◽  
B Byers

Abstract Mutations in the Start class of cell division cycle genes (CDC28, CDC36 and CDC39) define the point in the G1 phase of the vegetative cycle at which the cell becomes committed to completing another round of cell division. Genetic, cytological and biochemical data demonstrate that these mutations cause meiotic cells to become arrested at pachytene following completion of both chromosomal DNA replication and spindle pole body (SPB) duplication. In contrast these mutations have previously been found to cause arrest of the mitotic cell cycle prior to either of these landmark events, so the role of the Start genes in these events during vegetative growth must be indirect. Our observations are consistent with the hypothesis that CDC28, CDC36 and CDC39 are required for irreversible commitment to nuclear division in both the mitotic and meiotic pathways. CDC28 was additionally found to be required for the SPB separation that precedes spindle formation in preparation for the second meiotic division. Cytological and genetic analyses of this requirement revealed both that such separation may fail independently at either SPB and that ascospore formation can proceed independently of SPB separation.


Author(s):  
Arvid B. Maunsbach

Structural studies in experimental biology or in pathology are frequently extended from the light to the electron microscopic level. This is often done by cutting both semithin (about 1 μm) and thin sections from the same tissue block after embedding for electron microscopy. However, in many studies it would be of great value to analyse the same structure both by light and electron microscopy, i.e. to be able to study by electron microscopy an object which is first detected by light microscopy in a semithin section. To achieve this, a method has been developed by which ultrathin sections are cut directly from the semithin section containing the object of interest.Semithin sections, about 1 μ in thickness, are cut from Epon or Vestopal embedded tissue. The sections are placed on ordinary glass slides and stained with toluidine blue. The sections are studied in the light microscope without a cover glass or mounted in water.


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