Cell junctions acting as intestinal valves in nematodes |
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Authors: | Malcolm K. Seymour Audrey M. Shepherd |
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Affiliation: | Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts |
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Abstract: | Serial sections of the rectal valve in Aphelenchoides blastophthorus Franklin and the oesophago-intestinal valve in Thornenema wickeni Yeates were examined electron microscopically. Each valve when closed appears as a convoluted path of closely apposed (10 nm) pairs of three-layered cell membranes. Both valves serve to stop intestinal leakage, open briefly and rapidly by forcible dilatation and are closed by pressure from surrounding tissues, helped perhaps by intermolecular forces. |
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