The Fine Structure of the Centriolar Apparatus and Associated Structures in the Flagellates Deltotrichonympha and Koruga. I. Interphase

SYNOPSIS. An electronmicroscopic study was made of the centriolar apparatus in the rostrum of Deltotrichonympha operculata and Koruga bonita , 2 closely related hypermastigote flagellates from the Australian termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis. In interphase flagellates, the centriolar apparatus consists of 2 similar parts with a mutually perpendicular orientation. Each part contains a large, club-shaped centriolar body consisting of fibrillar and granular material, without recognizable internal symmetry or microtubules. The anterior centriolar body extends from the inner rostral wall, which is structurally related to the fibrous wall surrounding the posterior centriolar body. The 2 centriolar bodies are joined by connecting branches, which meet at 3 barren kinetosome-like structures located inside the rostrum. Thus, an interphase flagellate has 2 centriolar bodies oriented at a 90° angle to each other, like a pair of typical centrioles in an interphase metazoan cell.