Abstract
This investigation of Calicotyle affinis is the first ultrastructural description of the male reproductive system of a monocotylid monogenean. It has revealed numerous characteristics which are either new or clarify those determined from previous light microscopical observations on the morphology of Calicotyle spp. These include numerous individual testes, each surrounded by its own basal lamina; an ejaculatory bulb delimited by a basal lamina surrounded by two independent internal and external bands of muscles; a bipartite, but not fully divided, muscular chamber (an internal seminal vesicle) in the proximal region of the ejaculatory bulb; well-developed unicellular prostatic glands localised outside the ejaculatory bulb, the cytoplasmic extensions of which pass into the ejaculatory bulb, to form the ducts which open into the lumen of ejaculatory duct; and a male copulatory organ in the form of a coiled penis tube containing throughout its lumen a long, hollow stylet. The penis tube appears to be a modified prolongation of the ejaculatory duct and is supported by a basal lamina and muscle layers. The stylet wall consists of a homogenous, dense material with a narrow, denser inner lining; it is funnel-shaped proximally but narrows imperceptibly towards the distal end of the penis tube, and appears to be a derivative of the basal laminae of the ejaculatory bulb and distal ejaculatory duct. A comparative analysis of the nature of the stylet in relation to those found in free-living platyhelminths forms part of a search for characters useful for understanding monocotylid origins and relationships.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the staff of the RV ‘Johan Ruud’, belonging to Tromsø University (Norway), for their help with the fishing. We are also grateful to the staff of the Centre of Electron Microscopy, I.D. Papanin Institute for the Biology of Inland Waters (Borok, Russia), for technical assistance. The present study was carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations, Russia (theme no. AAAA-A18-118012690100-5) and supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 15–04-02890-a to LGP) and the Grant Agency of the Slovak Republic, VEGA (project no. 2/0104/16 to MB)
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Poddubnaya, L.G., Hemmingsen, W., Bruñanská, M. et al. Ultrastructural characteristics of the male ducts and terminal genitalia of an endoparasitic monogenean, Calicotyle affinis Scott, 1911 (Monopisthocotylea: Monocotylidae), with the first detailed description of a copulatory stylet in a monogenean. Parasitol Res 117, 1503–1512 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5831-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5831-9