Arthur W. Pollister

The Structure of the Golgi Apparatus

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the structure of the Golgi apparatus. The living cellular unit must always contain such a subunit, functioning as an intracellular organ, or organelle, in carrying out certain unique specific functions common to all cells. The threefold characterization of cellular elements–structural, chemical, and physiological is the comprehensive goal of general cytology, as opposed to special cytology, which concerns itself with the features in which specialized cells differ from one another. Three categories of possible organelles had emerged and have continued to receive major attention since then. These are the centrioles, the mitochondria, and the internal reticular apparatus of Golgi. Golgi apparatus, which is the most controversial of all cell structures, is emerging from the clouds and appearing as a unique organelle, clearly recognizable structurally and probably with equally definite unique functions. The lamellar character of the Golgi reticulum is studied with the electron microscope. In several groups of animals—vertebrates, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, nematodes, tunicates, and sponges—, in a variety of cell types, a lamelliform plasma component is found, and it (the Golgi apparatus) does not have, as is widely assumed, exclusively the character of a fibrous structure.