The nucleolonema of plant and animal cells: a comparison

Depending on the author and the animal or plant origin of the material under study, the term "nucleolonema" is used in different contexts and thus indicates nucleolar ultrastructures that are different. In this paper, we attempt to clarify this state of affairs and to propose a definition for the plant cell nucleolonema.     

CELL FORM AND SURFACE PATTERNS IN CHROOMONAS and CRYPTOMONAS CELLS (CRYPTOPHYTA) AS REVEALED BY SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY1

Fifteen freshwater cryptomonad species were freeze-dried and examined with the scanning electron microscope. Surveys of cell surfaces revealed four general cell types. Chroomonas type cells lack a furrow but possess a shallow vestibular depression where the flagella are inserted. The presence of a gullet could not be detected. Cryptomonas spp. displayed three morphological types, all lacking gullets. The first type of Cryptomonas has a simple, shallow furrow with ridges that apparently can close to form a raphe but an oval opening or stoma remains at the posterior end and an opening from the vestibulum is formed at the anterior end. The second Cryptomonas type consists of a complex furrow with furrow ridges and folds that extend almost two-thirds of the cell length. A sloma is present in the central region of the closed furrow. The folds apparently can separate thereby exposing the underlying furrow. The third type of Cryptomonas possesses a simple, non-closing furrow. At the anterior end there is a vestibular ligule which extends from the dorsalleft side of the cell and covers the region of the vestibulum where the contractile vacuole discharges.     

CELL SHAPE AND WALL PATTERN IN RELATION TO CYTOPLASMIC ORGANIZATION IN PEDIASTRUM SIMPLEX

P. simplex is a single-pronged, fenestrated species of Pediastrum. Comparison is made in regard to cell differentiation and structure with P. boryanum, a 2-pronged, unfenestrated species, with emphasis on the origin of cell wall pattern and the regulation of cell shape. The characteristic wall pattern is initiated with the deposition of plaques of wall material of the outer wall layer when zoospores have assembled in the colony. The pattern is postulated to be templated in the plasma membrane. The inner, thicker wall layer is fibrillar and deposited from vesicles derived from the golgi apparatus. In P. simplex 2–4 dictyosomes are present in contrast to the single dictyosome of P. boryanum. The dictyosomes lie at the concave inner face of the nucleus. Blebs of its ribosome-free outer membrane are contributed to the forming face of the golgi apparatus. Parallel microtubules underlie the plasma membrane in the aggregating zoospores and disappear after the initiation of wall formation. The possible role of microtubules and other organelles in the determination of cell shape in Pediastrum is discussed.     

用ERIC—PCR法研究番茄根际细菌群落结构变化

采用单一碳源回收菌群的方法和ERIC—PCR方法相结合,检测番茄(Lycopersicon escu-lentum Mill．)根际接种转基因微生物E4(Enterobacteria cloacae)后的根际微生物的群落结构和多样性的变化。结果表明：采用单一碳源回收菌群和ERIC—PCR相结合的方法,可以准确、直观和清楚地检测到E4释放到环境中后对根际微生物的群落结构和种群数量的影响。这种单一碳源培养法与ERIC—PCR相结合的方法,将有可能成为一种研究环境微生物群落结构变化的常用方法。     

THE MICROCRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE OF CELLULOSE IN CELL WALLS OF COTTON, RAMIE, AND JUTE FIBERS AS REVEALED BY NEGATIVE STAINING OF SECTIONS

With a new technique of negative staining of sections, it has been possible to observe directly, in ultrathin sections under the electron microscope, the original microcrystalline and microfibrillar structure of cellulose as it occurs in living cells. This method has advantages over the study of isolated fibers used so far by others, in that the original arrangement of microfibrils is better preserved, and their collapse into larger fibrillar units is prevented. With this method, the cell walls of ramie, jute, and cotton fibers have been studied. The size (diameter, 25 to 40 A) and the longitudinal periodicity observed in the single microfibrils and the orientation and spatial arrangement of the microcrystallite within the microfibrils are found to correspond with the latest models derived by others from data obtained by indirect methods such as X-ray diffraction. The microfibril size of about 35 A, found by measuring these structures in sections, agrees with the latest conclusions reached by others in recent work with isolated fibrils.     

NUCLEOLAR AND NUCLEAR RNA SYNTHESIS DURING THE CELL LIFE CYCLE IN MONKEY AND PIG KIDNEY CELLS IN VITRO

The incorporation of 5-³H-uridine and 5-³H-cytidine into nucleolar and nonnucleolar RNA in the nucleus of monkey and pig kidney cells was measured in vitro during the cell life cycle. Time-lapse cinematographic records were made of cells during asynchronous exponential proliferation, in order to identify the temporal position of individual cells in relation to the preceding mitosis. Immediately following cinematography, cells were labeled with uridine-³H and cytidine-³H for a short period, fixed, and analyzed by radioautography. Since the data permit correlation of the rate of RNA labeling with the position of a cell within the cycle, curves could be constructed describing the rate of RNA synthesis over the average cell cycle. RNA synthesis was absent in early telophase, and rose very abruptly in rate in late telophase and in very early G₁ in both the nucleus and the reconstituting nucleolus. Thereafter, through the G₁ and S periods the rate of nuclear RNA synthesis rose gradually. When we used a 10-min pulse, there was no detectable change in the rate for nucleolar RNA labeling in monkey kidney cells during G₁ or S. When we used a 30-min labeling time, the rate of nucleolar RNA labeling rose gradually in pig kidney cells. With increasing time after mitosis, the data became more variable, which may, in part, be related to the variation in generation times for individual cells.     

百合生殖细胞分裂过程中微管分布的显微荧光观察

用抗微管蛋白抗体和荧光标记技术,观察了百合生殖细胞经有丝分裂形成精细胞过程中微管的变化。生殖细胞在分裂的前期,存在于核外围以及细胞两端胞质内的微管大都以微管束的形式沿细胞长轴方向平行排列。在靠近核的部位,有些微管有时会斜向排列。分裂进入中期后,染色体集中排列在赤道面。在染色体周围可以见到有多束与细胞长轴平行排列着的微管,但这些微管束是在分裂中期时新形成的或是在前期已存在,尚难以断定。这些微管束有一个特点,就是当它们延伸至赤道板部位时,在每一条微管束上都有一个无荧光的小圆区;这个小圆区可能代表着丝粒的位置。细胞分裂进入后期,姊妹染色单体分别向两极移动形成两组染色体。在它们之间近赤道板位置出现了一个具有强烈荧光的区域,显示在这一部位,微管相当浓密。从这一强烈荧光区向两极分别伸出多条微管束。因此,在这一强烈荧光区内可能有多个微管束重叠。到细胞分裂末期,在这一强烈的荧光区的中央出现了一条横向的无荧光区。这一区域有可能为胞质完成分裂后新形成的细胞板所在的部位。     

ONTOGENY IN MONOCOTYLEDONS AS REVEALED BY STUDIES OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL ANATOMY OF PERICLINAL CHLOROPLAST CHIMERAS

The developmental anatomy of apically stable periclinal chloroplast chimeras was studied in a number of monocotyledonous genera. Their ontogeny is basically similar to that of dicotyledons. In both there are three independent apical layers (L-I, L-II, and L-III) whose derivatives can be traced in stem, leaf and flower. The bulk of the stem tissue is derived from L-III with only the epidermis and one or two hypodermal cell layers from L-I and L-II. All three layers participate in formation of the leaf with great flexibility in the amount of tissue from each. There is more instability in growth of most monocotyledonous leaves than in dicotyledonous leaves. As a result there is relatively more tissue derived from L-I and L-II and less from L-III. The same is true in floral development so that a significant number of gametes are of L-I origin. As in dicotyledons, there is variation in direction, timing, and frequency of cell division. However, an overriding genetic control results in normal size, shape, and structure. The evidence from genetic and cytochimeras in both monocotyledons and dicotyledons has provided direct experimental proof of the functional reality of the apical layers described by Hanstein and Schmidt.     

ORGANIZATION OF PREDATOR-PREY COMMUNITIES AS AN EVOLUTIONARY GAME

We consider a simple predator-prey model of coevolution. By allowing coevolution both within and between trophic levels the model breaks the traditional dichotomy between coevolution among competitors and coevolution between a prey and its predator. By allowing the diversity of prey and predator species to emerge as a property of the evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS), the model breaks another constraint of most approaches to coevolution that consider as fixed the number of coevolving species. The number of species comprising the ESS is influenced by a parameter that determines the predator's niche breadth. Depending upon the parameter's value the ESS may contain: 1) one prey and one predator species, 2) two prey and one predator, 3) two prey and two predators, 4) three prey and two predators, 5) three prey and three predators, etc. Evolutionarily, these different ESSs all emerge from the same model. Ecologically, however, these ESSs result in very different patterns of community organization. In some communities the predator species are ecologically keystone in that their removal results in extinctions among the prey species. In others, the removal of a predator species has no significant impact on the prey community. These varied ecological roles for the predator species contrasts sharply with the essential evolutionary role of the predators in promoting prey species diversity. The ghost of predation past in which a predator's insignificant ecological role obscures its essential evolutionary role may be a frequent property of communities of predator and prey.