Shigeru Ogawa

Disintegration of chloroplasts during zygote formation inSpirogyra verruculosa

The chloroplast disintegration during zygote maturation inSpirogyra verruculosa was investigated by electron microscopy. In the seven-day-old zygote about half of the chloroplasts commenced to disintegrate and to turn yellow, losing starch grains, and, then, were torn into fragments of various sizes, which had mostly vesiculated thylakoids and plastoglobules increasing in both size and number. At about two weeks after conjugation, in the cytoplasm, electron-dense structures, linear in section, appeared and vacuoles of various sizes developed. Each of the dense linear structures lying around a fragment seemed to form a cavity of crescent shape in section, and these cavities fused mutually into a large one, leading to the separation of the fragment from the bulk of cytoplasm. The vacuoles seemed to be, involved in the sequestration of the fragments by their fusion with the cavities and by the invagination, of tonoplast. The fragments entrapped by the vacuoles were rapidly broken down into the aggregation of residual membrane pieces, plastoglobules, and undigested starch grains. The maintained chloroplasts changed little in structure compared with the chloroplast of the vegetative cell, and were transmitted to the germling. It is suggested that the eliminated chloroplasts are derived exclusively from the male gamete.

Nuclear envelope projections from pronuclei in karyogamy ofSpirogyra

Karyogamy ofSpirogyra (S. verruculosa andSpirogyra sp.) was investigated by electron microscopy. After conjugation both male and female pronuclei migrated to the center of the zygote and adjoined. Many regular finger-like projections arose from the nuclear envelopes of the pronuclei; each involved both the outer and inner nuclear membranes and was ca. 0.17 μm in diameter. The inner membrane was underlaid by electron-dense bands parallel to one another in arrangement and perpendicular to the axis of protrusion in direction. Subsequently, the two pronuclei were connected by internuclear bridges, and the approximating surfaces of them were closely apposed. The bridges resembled the said projections both in diameter and structure, having a diameter of ca. 0.17 μm and electron-opaque bands lining the inner membrane. The adjacent surfaces of the two pronuclei approximated to each other more and more, and by 30 days after conjugation both pronuclei intermingled into a synkaryon, from which the projections disappeared. Probably, the nuclear envelope projections are involved in the initial contact between the two pronuclei and then the internuclear bridges are formed.