Unusual features of intercellular junctions in the larvacean Oikopleura dioica

Summary In the pelagic larvacean Oikopleura dioica, the epithelium lining the alimentary tract consists of ciliated and unciliated cell types. The ciliated cells also exhibit an apical border of long microvilli. Between the microvilli, the cellular membrane often projects deeply down into the cytoplasm; the membranes of these invaginations and those of apicolateral interdigitations may be associated with one another by tight junctions. Some of these junctions may be autocellular. The tight junctions are seen by freeze-fracture to be very simple in construction, composed of a single row of intramembranous particles, which may be fused into a P-face ridge. There is a dense cytoplasmic fuzz associated with these tight junctions which may extend into adjoining zonula adhaerens-like regions. The invaginations of the apical membranes are, in addition, associated by gap junctions which may also be autocellular. More conventional homocellular and heterocellular tight and gap junctions occur along the lateral borders of ciliated cells and between ciliated and unciliated cells. These gap junctions possess a reduced intercellular cleft and typical P-face connexons arranged in macular plaques, with complementary E-face pits. Both cell types exhibit extensive stacks of basal and lateral interdigitations. The tight junctions found here are unusual in that they are associated with a dense cytoplasmic fuzz which is normally more characteristic of zonulae adhaerentes.