"On the possibly kystic nature of multilamellar cospuscles in the midgut gland (MGG) of the apple-snail Pomacea canaliculata (I)"

VEGA IA.; GAMARRA-LUQUES C.; ALBRECHT EA.; KOCH E.; CASTRO-VAZQUEZ A.

San Luis, Argentina

Congreso; XIX Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo.; 2001

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo.

Under the light microscope, K corpuscles are large, dark-brown concretions apparently contained within alveolar pyramidal cells in the MGG. They have long been interpreted as excretory bodies, although we thought that they might be the kystic counterpart of C corpuscles, the putative vegetative form of a symbiont in the neighbouring columnar cells. Electron microscope studies on MGG alveoli were made. K bodies are contained within a thin cytoplasmic layer, which seems engulfed by the RER- filled cytoplasm of pyramidal cells. The thin, mitochondria bearing cytoplasmic layer might be an extrusion of the neighbouring columnar cells. The electron dense material deposited as the multiple layers of K corpuscles may be syntethized, at least in part, in pyramidal cells and transferred to K corpuscles.