Quinacrine-induced dilation of the rat cecum and degeneration of large granular vesicle-containing neurons in the myenteric plexus

Summary An electrophoretic analysis of the microtubule-containing transport channels, known as nutritive tubes, which link the nutritive cells with the chain of developing oocytes in the telotrophic ovarioles of the hemipteran Notonecta glauca, has been carried out. The major polypeptide components resolved have been identified tentatively as -and -tubulin subunits by their comparable electrophoretic mobility to tubulin subunits from purified mammalian brain microtubule protein. Co-migration of some of the minor components with proteins resolved from insect ribosomes (which are the only other components of the nutritive tubes as seen in ultrastructural studies) indicates that these may be ribosomal proteins. Also characterized by electrophoresis were the nutritive cells, which are the source of synthesis of the components transported via the nutritive tubes, and the oocytes, the sites of their accumulation.