spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Afzelius, B. A.
Right arrow Articles by Lanzavecchia, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Afzelius, B. A.
Right arrow Articles by Lanzavecchia, S.

Journal of Cell Science, Vol 95, Issue 2 207-217, Copyright © 1990 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Microtubules and their protofilaments in the flagellum of an insect spermatozoon

BA Afzelius, PL Bellon and S Lanzavecchia
Department of Ultrastructure Research, Wenner-Gren Institute, University of Stockholm, Sweden.

Spermatozoa of stick insects have nine accessory tubules, which surround the nine outer microtubular doublets and the two inner microtubular singlets. When fixed in a fixative that was designed to minimize protein denaturation (glutaraldehyde and tannic acid, no osmium post-fixation but block staining with uranyl acetate in water) the accessory tubules were seen to contain 17 protofilaments of the same type as those in the 9 + 2 microtubular doublets and singlets. The protofilaments in accessory tubules and other microtubules were roughly triangular. When studied by Markham's photographic method a somewhat different tilt of the two longer sides was seen; this makes it possible to distinguish a polarity in the microtubules, i.e. to differentiate between a microtubule that is viewed from its (-)end to its (+)end from one that is viewed in the opposite direction. The dynein arms of the doublets can be used as an independent type of marker for the polarity. In a computer-aided analysis of the fine structure of the tail axoneme, the A-subtubules of the outer doublets were seen to be not quite equidistant; rather, there were somewhat widened electron-dense interspaces in the ring of protofilaments in four places. The locations of these widened interspaces coincide with the attachment sites for the spoke, the inner dynein arm, the outer dynein arm, and the intertubular material. It is tentatively concluded that proteins of these structures, and perhaps also other microtubule-associated proteins, may be anchored deep within the wall of a microtubule rather than just superficially along it.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Cell Sci.Home page
H. R. Dawe, H. Farr, and K. Gull
Centriole/basal body morphogenesis and migration during ciliogenesis in animal cells
J. Cell Sci., January 1, 2007; 120(1): 7 - 15.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.Home page
E. Escudier, M. Couprie, B. Duriez, F. Roudot-Thoraval, M.-C. Millepied, V. Pruliere-Escabasse, L. Labatte, and A. Coste
Computer-assisted Analysis Helps Detect Inner Dynein Arm Abnormalities
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., November 1, 2002; 166(9): 1257 - 1262.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1990