5. Possibly paracrine epithelioid tissues in the penial sheath and the prostate gland of the apple-snail Pomacea canaliculata

GAMARRA-LUQUES CD, KOCH E, VEGA IA, ALBRECHT EA, CASTRO-VAZQUEZ A

San Luis

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

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

Contrariwise to a previous report (Takeda, 1999), we have been unable to consistently detect sexual steroids through sensitive specific RIAs, both in the testis and the haemolymph of this apple-snail. Therefore we have looked for presumably paracrine tissues in the genitalia that could sustain their development. Zencker-fixed genital organs of adult males were stained with haematoxylin, eosin and light green. Epithelioid tissues composed by elongated cells bearing a vacuolar-granular cytoplasm and associated to haemolymphatic  spaces, were found underneath exocrine and covering epithelia of the penial sheath, and the exocrine epithelium of the prostate gland. It is suggested that this tissues may be involved in sustaining development of the masculine genitalia in Pomacea canaliculata.