Journal of Cell Science, Vol 4, 527-540, Copyright © 1969 by Company of Biologists

Submitted on June 21, 1968

Some Evidence for the Continuity of Ciliary Fibrils and Microtubules in the Insect Sensory Dendrite

¹ Department of Entomology, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 and Veterans Administration Hospital at Long Beach and Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.; 308 Lismore Avenue, Glenside, Pennsylvania 19038, U.S.A.
² Department of Entomology, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 and Veterans Administration Hospital at Long Beach and Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Evidence has been obtained that the microtubules of the insect sensory dendrite may originate from the nine pairs of peripheral fibrils in the ciliary portion of the dendrite and retain direct continuity with them. The peripheral fibrils separate and each of the single fibrils resulting appears to divide one or more times. The number of microtubules within the dendrite distal to the ciliary region often lies close to 18 or to a multiple of 18, such as 36 or 72. If our interpretation is correct, the basal bodies, their rootlets, the ciliary fibrils and microtubules of the insect sensory dendrite form a continuous structure with the probable function of a cytoskeleton.