ENDOCYTOSIS OF LANTHANUM NITRATE IN THE ORGANIC ACID-SECRETING TRICHOMES OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.)

The organic acid-secreting trichomes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) were exposed to 2.5 mm lanthanum nitrate for 24 hr, and this concentration did not inhibit trichome secretion compared with that of controls. We subsequently used this nontoxic concentration of lanthanum to examine endocytosis. In the stalk cells of these secretory trichomes, exogenously applied lanthanum nitrate was present in cell walls and vacuoles, as well as within both invaginations in the plasma membrane and vesicles in the peripheral cytoplasm between the plasma membrane and the tonoplast. In the head cells, lanthanum nitrate was present in cell walls and in vesicles that form a layer in the cytoplasm around the edge of the head cells, but was not present in vacuoles. We propose that fluid phase endocytosis targeted to the vacuole takes place in the stalk cells and that endocytosis occurs in the head cells to remove excess plasma membrane after the fusion of secretory vesicles with the plasma membrane. This is the first demonstration of endocytosis in secretory trichomes.