Shooting of sporidium by "gun" cells in Haptoglossa heterospora and H. zoospora and secondary zoospore formation in H. zoospora

Haptoglossa spp. (Lagenidiales, Oomycetes) have been known to parasitize microscopic animals by means of a "gun" cell that shoots an infection cell, named the sporidium, into the body of the animal. A thallus grown from the sporidium changes into a zoosporangium at maturation to produce a number of zoospores that encyst after a swarming period, and the resulting cysts germinate to produce gun cells. In Haptoglossa zoospora, endoparasitic in nematodes, the cysts of primary zoospores that swam for about 5 min did not develop gun cells but produced secondary zoospores that swam for about 3 h. After encystment of the secondary zoospores, each secondary cyst germinated to produce a gun cell. In the present study, the secondary zoospores of the genus Haptoglossa could be recorded with a videocassette recorder for the first time. The videocassette recording also revealed the infection of a nematodes by H. zoospora and H. heterospora to be composed of two steps of injection of a sporidium by the gun cell, in which the gun cell came in contact with the cuticle of a nematode and produced a spherical adhesorium on the tip of the cell in 0.07–0.1 s in both species. The adhesorium was ∼2 μm in H. zoospora and ∼4 μm in H. heterospora. When the adhesorium infiated to full size, it shot the sporidium into the nematode's body in 0.5–0.65 s and in 0.2–0.5 (or rarely 1.0) s in H. zoospora and H. heterospora, respectively. After shooting, the empty gun cell with an empty cyst case was separated from the cuticle immediately in both species. Received: October 3, 2001 / Accepted: December 13, 2001