Ultrastructure of In Vivo-Produced Caryocysts Containing the Coccidian Caryospora bigenetica (Apicomplexa: Eimerüdae) |
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Authors: | CHRISTINE A SUNDERMANN DAVID S LINDSAY |
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Institution: | Department of Zoology &Wildlife Science, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn University, Alabama 36849;United States Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Poultry Sciences Institute, oonotic Diseases Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland 20705 |
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Abstract: | A cotton rat was inoculated orally with oocysts of Caryospora bigenetica from the feces of a rattlesnake. Sixteen days later the rat was euthanized, and portions of the scrotum, foot pad and muzzle were processed for histological sections and transmission electron microscopy. Sporozoites within caryocysts had typical coccidian features such as an anterior and posterior refractile body, centrally located nucleus, micronemes, rhoptries, a conoid, a micropore near the anterior refractile body, a posterior pore, amylopectin granules, lipid bodies, a Golgi-like body, a mitochondrion and subpellicular microtubules. The infected host cell was spherical and surrounded by a fibrous wall-like covering, 0.35–1.00 μm thick. This outer covering, when viewed in stained histological sections, was periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-positive. |
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Keywords: | Conoid cotton rat histology micronemes micropores parasitophorous vacuole rattlesnake refractile bodies rhoptries |
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