The fine structure of Rhodopseudomonas acidophila

1974 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.-D. Tauschel ◽  
Judith F. M. Hoeniger

The morphology of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas acidophila strain P18aF1 1.2 has been investigated with the electron microscope. The cells grow by budding, the sessile buds eventually separating from the mother cells by constriction. In some dividing stages a belt-like structure was observed in the zone of division. Motile cells possess a subpolar tuft of unsheathed flagella. At the site of insertion of the flagella, the cell wall bears 12- to 14-nm wide holes or annuli through which the flagella probably pass. Motile cells readily lose their flagella.The structure of the surface revealed two distinct types: cells with a hexagonally patterned outer layer composed of ring-shaped elements and cells possessing a thick, fibrous capsule. Thin sections showed a well-developed thylakoid system arranged in piles and similar to that of other budding photosynthetic bacteria.The morphology of R. acidophila has been compared with that of R. palustris to show similarities and differences between the two species.

1972 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 997-1002 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. L. Stevenson ◽  
S. A. W. E. Becker

Methods have been developed for the rapid, reproducible induction of high-density populations of F. oxysporum chlamydospores. On transferring washed pregerminated conidia to a simple two-salts medium, chlamydospore morphogenesis was evident by 12 h and masses of mature spores could be harvested at the end of 4 days. Electron-microscope studies of thin sections of mature chlamydospores reveal a thick triple-layered cell wall. The cytoplasm contains, in addition to large lipid deposits, a nucleus, mitochondria, and endoplasmic reticulum all typical of fungal cells. Chlamydospores of F. oxysporum exhibit two distinct types of cell surface in thin section. The outer wall layer of two of the isolates studied was smooth-surfaced while the outer layer of the two other isolates was distinctly fibrillose. Some evidence is presented suggesting that the fibrillose material arises through the partial breakdown of the original hyphal wall.


1963 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan W. Drum

The cytoplasmic fine structure of the motile, pennate diatom, Nitzschia palea was studied in thin sections viewed in the electron microscope. The cells were fixed in OsO4, embedded in methacrylate, and immersed in 10 per cent hydrofluoric acid (HF) for 36 to 40 hours to remove the siliceous cell wall prior to sectioning. The HF treatment did not cause any obvious cytoplasmic damage. The dictyosome complex is perinuclear, and located only in the central cytoplasm. Mitochondria are sparse in the central cytoplasm, but abundant in the peripheral cytoplasm, and fill many of the transvacuolar cytoplasmic strands. Characteristic, amorphous oil bodies fill certain cytoplasmic strands and probably are not leucosin. The pyrenoid appears to be membrane limited, and oil droplets are found adjacent to the pyrenoid. The pyrenoid of another diatom, Cymbella affinis, is also membrane-limited. The membrane limiting the pyrenoid may be a composite of the terminal portions of chloroplast discs, facilitating rapid movement of photosynthate into the pyrenoid matrix, where the characteristic oil droplets may be formed. Carinal fibrils are found singly in each carinal pore, and may be involved in the locomotion of Nitzschia palea.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-667
Author(s):  
L. F. LA COUR ◽  
B. WELLS

The 1-4 chromocentres seen in nuclei of Fritillaria lanceolata, which derive from fusion of heterochromatic segments situated proximal to the centromere in all but two of the 24 chromosomes, were studied with the electron microscope in thin sections of pollen mother cells at zygotene and pachytene, in respect of the synaptinemal complex. Prophase stages of meiosis in two plants were also surveyed briefly with the light microscope. The latter observations revealed that the timing of the separation of heterochromatic segments from chromocentres is genetically controlled. In one plant the segments were still contained in chromocentres at pachytene, whereas in the other they were free at zygotene. At this time they could be identified by a near-surface position in the nucleus and an even condensation concomitant with an absence of chromomeres. In thin section, the fine structure of the chromocentres in zygotene nuclei was distinctive in that the chromatin fibrils were less condensed and more widely dispersed than those in euchromatic regions. The fibrillar network was also interspersed with ‘clear areas’ or channels. After further chromosome condensation, the condensation of fibrils in the chromocentres became equivalent at pachytene to those in euchromatic regions. Synaptinemal complexes were seen at zygotene and pachytene both in euchromatic regions and chromocentres. Their presence in the chromocentres signifies that homologous chromosomes must have been closely paired in regions extending from the centromeres to the distal ends of the heterochromatic segments already at telophase of the last pre-meiotic mitosis. Configurations involving entangled pairs of axial cores, peculiar to zygotene and chromocentres and parts of euchromatic regions proximal to them, are interpreted as resulting from restricted movement.


1966 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1125-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Reyn ◽  
A. Birch-Andersen ◽  
S. P. Lapage

The line structure of Haemophilus vaginalis (Gardner and Dukes 1955) was compared with that of four, possibly related species (Butyribacterium rettgeri, Corynebacterium diphtheriae var. mitis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Haemophilus influenzae) and an unrelated species, Neisseria haemolysans, which had shown a similar degree of Gram-variability as that of H. vaginalis. Although H. vaginalis was first described as a Gram-negative rod, its fine structure, particularly that of cell wall and septa, was more like that of Gram-positive organisms. Also N. haemolysans had a fine structure close to that of Gram-positive organisms, and its typical Gram-positive cell wall varied in. thickness from one cell to another.The study did not solve the problem of the classification of the so-called H. vaginalis, but the appearance of the few strains studied in the electron microscope suggests that it: should be included in Corynebacterium or Butyribacterium rather than in Lactobacillus.


Nuclear pores have been studied with the electron microscope in thin sections of pollen mother cells at early- to mid-meiotic prophase ( a ) in respect of distribution, ( b ) in relation to fine structure in the pore complex in the following plants: Fritillaria lanceolata, Phaedranassa viridijlora, Tulbaghia violacea , an F 1 hybrid of Allium fisultosum x Allium cepa and the lily var. 'Formobel'. In all plants from leptotene to pachytene, the pores were irregularly spread over the envelope in random clusters of variable size encircled by areas in which they did not occur. Further proof was obtained from the lily for the premise that pores are not formed in regions of the envelope to which the nucleolus is adpressed at leptotene. The fine structure of the pore complex observed supports a model which proposes that annuli are composed of three rings of eight granular subunits. Most pores contained a central granule ranging from 25 to 30 nm in diameter composed of amorphous substance and filaments about 3 nm wide, apparently continuous with filaments of similar dimensions in the symmetrical annular subunits that encircle the orifice at both the nuclear and cytoplasmic sides of the pore. The pore complex and central granule were relatively more stable to osmotic shock than the ribosomal region of the nucleolus. Recent ideas concerning the role of the annulus and central granule in nucleocytoplasmic transfer of ribonucleoprotein and assembly of polyribosomes are discussed.


Author(s):  
Roberta M. Bruck

An unusual structure in the cochlea is the spiral limbus; this periosteal tissue consists of stellate fibroblasts and collagenous fibers embedded in a translucent ground substance. The collagenous fibers are arranged in vertical columns (the auditory teeth of Haschke). Between the auditory teeth are interdental furrows in which the interdental cells are situated. These epithelial cells supposedly secrete the tectorial membrane.The fine structure of interdental cells in the rat was reported by Iurato (1962). Since the mouse appears to be different, a description of the fine structure of mouse interdental cells' is presented. Young adult C57BL/6J mice were perfused intervascularly with 1% paraformaldehyde/ 1.25% glutaraldehyde in .1M phosphate buffer (pH7.2-7.4). Intact cochlea were decalcified in .1M EDTA by the method of Baird (1967), postosmicated, dehydrated, and embedded in Araldite. Thin sections stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate were examined in a Phillips EM-200 electron microscope.


Author(s):  
I. Manton ◽  
G. F. Leedale

C. ericina Parke & Manton has been re-investigated to add salient features of micro-anatomy from the electron microscopy of thin sections and also to add photographs of living cells taken with anoptral contrast light microscopy.The most important new observations concern the scales which are shown to be essentially two-layered plates in which the layers in the very large spined scales have become separated except at their edges, with the outer layer greatly hypertrophied to produce a hollow spine with a flared base closed at the bottom by a flat plate. The patterns of external marking on the two layers are very similar in both plate-scales and spines in this species and the orientation of both with respect to the cell surface has been demonstrated by a section of the scales in situ.


1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 1266-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susette C. Mueller ◽  
Gordon A. Maclachlan

Radioautographic experiments were carried out using pea stem slices to determine the site of glucose incorporation from UDP-glucose. Cut or damaged pea stem cells were the only cells to incorporate [3H]glucose from UDP-[3H]glucose. The product formed at 20 μM UDP-glucose was observed in electron microscope thin sections in patches on the plasma membrane and the cell wall. The product formed at 5 mM UDP-glucose occurred in fibrillar bundles that stretched between the plasma membrane and the cell wall. This periplasmic material fluoresced when stained with aniline blue. Experiments in which slices were subjected to sequential incubations in radioactive 5 mM UDP-glucose followed by unlabelled 5 mM UDP-glucose, or incubations in the reverse order, indicated that incorporation of [3H]glucose into products insoluble in chloroform:methanol:water or hot water occurs at the plasma membrane, and radioactivity is displaced from the membrane by subsequent incubations. A similar experiment, in which slices were first incubated in radioactive 20 μM UDP-glucose followed by unlabelled 5 mM UDP-glucose, indicated that the synthesis of fibrillar material from 5 mM UDP-glucose displaces the labelled product that had been formed from 20 μM UDP-glucose. It is concluded that only cut or damaged pea stem cells utilize UDP-glucose and the plasma membrane enzymes that incorporate [3H]glucose from 20 μM or 5 mM UDP-[3H]glucose are in close physical proximity.


1955 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanford L. Palay ◽  
George E. Palade

1. Thin sections of representative neurons from intramural, sympathetic and dorsal root ganglia, medulla oblongata, and cerebellar cortex were studied with the aid of the electron microscope. 2. The Nissl substance of these neurons consists of masses of endoplasmic reticulum showing various degrees of orientation; upon and between the cisternae, tubules, and vesicles of the reticulum lie clusters of punctate granules, 10 to 30 mµ in diameter. 3. A second system of membranes can be distinguished from the endoplasmic reticulum of the Nissl bodies by shallower and more tightly packed cisternae and by absence of granules. Intermediate forms between the two membranous systems have been found. 4. The cytoplasm between Nissl bodies contains numerous mitochondria, rounded lipid inclusions, and fine filaments.


1970 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 1041-1044 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. McKeen

Osmiophilic bodies appear in parts of the colonial growth of Erysiphe graminis DC. f. sp. hordei Em Marchal culture CR3 growing on the susceptible commercial Keystone variety of barley. They are readily observed by the light and electron microscope after osmium tetroxide staining and are abundant in conidiophores, conidia, and mycelium except in haustorial mother cells, in which they are usually absent. The metabolism of haustorial mother cells is distinct and the fine structure of adjoining cells is frequently different. Osmiophilic bodies are absent from the growing hyphal tip, but gradually increase in number and size further back in the terminal cell. Electron micrographs show that they are intracytoplasmic, intravacuolar, and up to 1 μ in diameter. When the colony is washed with acetone or alcohol rather than with aqueous buffer, after glutaraldehyde fixation, before osmium tetroxide fixation, the osmiophilic bodies are removed, indicating that they are lipids. Fat stains, Sudan black B, and Sudan IV stain these bodies. Perhaps the water needs of the germinating conidium are met in part by the oxidation of fats.


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