ULTRASTRUCTURE OF ZOIDOGENESIS IN UNILOCULAR ZOIDOCYSTS OF SEVERAL BROWN ALGAE1

Several different stages of the development of unilocular zoidocysts of small brown algae—Elachista fucicola, Hecatonema streblonematoides, Pylaiella littoralis—are observed by electron microscopy. 1. A slow growing phase is seen, during which nuclei and pheoplasts become associated by pairs and divide together, vacuoles and physodes are excreted through the plasmalemma, and Golgi bodies liberate vesicles with fibrillar material identical to the growing cell wall fibers. Mitochondria and Golgi bodies are concentrated under the very sinuous plasmalemma. 2. A very short spatial reorganization phase follows, during which organelles disperse between the nuclei-pheoplast pairs, cleavage vesicles appear, and flagella start developing. New pyrenoids form de novo. 3. The latter phase is followed by a longer maturation phase. Cleavage vesicles fuse and separate zoids grow as flagella. Mastigonemes formed in the endoplasmic reticulum are finally found in vesicles of a special Golgi body at the base of the anterior flagellum. They are liberated in parallel rows at the base of the already developed flagella by these Golgi's vesicles, and attach, on the flagella by an unknown process. Excretion of a mucilaginous substance takes place as the stigmas form de novo. 4. The ripe, swollen zoidocysts burst open, liberating the whole gelatinous mass. Naked zoids swim and settle on a substrate, retracting their flagella before excreting a new cell wall.