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Fine structure of the mushroom body neuropile of the brain of the roach, Periplaneta americana

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Summary

The neuropile of the mushroom bodies is enveloped by a glial coating, sending a few septa inside. It is formed of nerve fibres and nerve endings which are smaller, more uniform in size, and more regularly arranged than those of the surrounding neuropile. The nerve endings are full of clear vesicles, dense granules 600–1100 Å in diameter, and mitochondria; the nerve fibres contain neurotubules, mitochondria, and often also some vesicles and granules. The fibres mainly follow a parallel trend; where the endings are present, they intermingle with the fibres without any recognizable order. The nerve fibres and endings come into contact with each other without glial sheets separating them; the cleft is 100–200 Å wide; no structural character was observed indicating the areas where synapses occur. The functional polarity of the contacts, the origin of the fibres, and the nature of the dense granules are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics and Parasitology Laboratories, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

    G. Mancini & N. Frontali

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  1. G. Mancini
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  2. N. Frontali
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The authors wish to thank Prof. D. Steve Bocciarelli for her continued interest and suggestions. Dr. V. P. Whittaker for helpful discussion of the manuscript, and Miss P. Crateri for technical assistance.

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Mancini, G., Frontali, N. Fine structure of the mushroom body neuropile of the brain of the roach, Periplaneta americana . Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 83, 334–343 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00336862

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00336862

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