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Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-97, 411-419, Copyright © 1956 by Company of Biologists

Studies of Serpulid Tube Formation

I. The Secretion of the Calcareous and Organic Components of the Tube by Pomatoceros Triqueter

R. H. HEDLEY 1

1 Department of Zoology, King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne. Present address, Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), London, S.W. 7

Calcium carbonate, in a finely granular form, is secreted into the fold of the peristomial collar by a pair of tubulo-racemose glands in the peristomium.

Most of the organic material of the tube is secreted by the ventro-lateral epithelial cells which surround the main ducts of the calcium-secreting glands. These cells are always filled with a basiphil mucigen which contains some free a-glycol groups. This material retains its affinity for basic dyes and for ferric iron at a low pH. The affinity for iron is retained when the pH is low enough to exclude carboxyl and phosphoric acid groups from the reaction and it is probable that the sulphuric acid groups are responsible.

The reactions of this mucigen to histochemical tests together with the similarity in behaviour of a precipitated heparin preparation make it likely that the material is a sulphomucopolysaccharide.






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1956