| Abstract: | Phago- and endocytosis have been studied in the colourless flagellate T. lauterborni using electron microscope. The coated pits are formed on the dorsal surface of the cells and in the flagellar pocket; then they are transformed into coated vesicles and transported into the ventral part of the cell loosing their clathrin coat. The storing of small vesicles in the ventral groove region is constant. To begin to feed a flagellate stops and produces within several seconds long ramified filopodia from the ventral groove. These filopodia serve to phagocyte bacteria. Small ventral vesicles represent the membrane pull which is necessary for a quick formation of the vast surface of filopodia. By means of peroxidase reaction in was shown that these vesicles were of endocytotic origin, rather than being the product of the Golgi apparatus functioning. |
