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Pigment biogenesis in freshwater shrimp ventral nerve chord chromatophores

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Summary

The possible biogenesis of two pigment granule types present in the monochromatic, brown chromatosomes enveloping the ventral nerve chord of the freshwater palaemonid shrimps Macrobrachium acanthurus, M. heterochirus and M. olfersii is examined by transmission electron microscopy in thin section and freeze fracture replicas. Prominent, membrane limited granules are suggested to have their origin in a complex, juxtanuclear, smooth endoplasmic reticulum labyrinth, continuous with the nuclear envelope. Amembranous, lipocarotenoid granules possibly derive from the external surface of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Nuclear envelope and SER membranes contain numerous 11 nm diameter intramembranous particles while pigment granule membranes exhibit fewer particles. A dictyosomal origin for the lipocarotenoid granules is discounted. Granulogenesis is suggested to be a continuous process in crustacean chromatophores.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Oceanography, Oceanographic Institute, University of São Paulo, Brazil

    John C. McNamara

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Brazil

    Antonio Sesso

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  1. John C. McNamara
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  2. Antonio Sesso
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McNamara, J.C., Sesso, A. Pigment biogenesis in freshwater shrimp ventral nerve chord chromatophores. Cell Tissue Res. 222, 167–175 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00218297

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00218297

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