Summary
The ultrastructure of the cardiac muscle in some araneae has been investigated. The sarcolemma invaginates at the Z band and may extend into the cells through several myofibrils. Numerous T-tubules are given off both from sarcolemmal invaginations and also directly from the cell surface. In passing through the Z band, the luminal diameter of T-tubules greatly increases. Dyadic and a few triadic couplings are found mainly at the A-I level. Peripheral couplings were not seen.
The ruthenium red solutions employed were prepared as described by Myklebust (1975), but the fixative contained 2% sucrose. The hearts were fixed for 3 1/2h in the ice cold solution, washed in buffer and post-fixed for 1 1/2h in a ruthenium red/OsO4 solution. Dehydration and embedding was performed as described above. Sections were cut on a Reichert Om U2 microtome, stained with lead citrate (Reynolds, 1963) and examined in a Philips 300 electron microscope at 80 kV.
Semithin sections for light microscopy were stained with toluidine blue (Mercer and Birbeck, 1972).
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I am much obliged to cand. real Erling Hauge for identifying the specimens used in the investigation proportion of relaxed sarcomeres. The fixed pieces were washed in a buffered sucrose solution and post-fixed in a 1% OsO4 solution buffered with sodium cacodylate for 1 h. Following washes in a compatible buffer and in distilled water, the tissue was stained en bloc for l h in a 2% aqueous uranyl acetate solution. The tissue was dehydrated through cold acetone and embedded in Epon 812.
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Midttun, B. Ultrastructure of cardiac muscle of Trochosa terricola Thor., Pardosa amentata Clerck, P. pullata Clerck, and Pisaura mirabilis Clerck (Araneae: Lycosidae, Pisauridae). Cell Tissue Res. 181, 299–310 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00223105
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00223105