Abstract
Haptoglossa spp. (Lagenidiales, Oomycetes) have been known to parasitize microscopic animals by means of a "gun" cell that shoots an infection cell, named the sporidium, into the body of the animal. A thallus grown from the sporidium changes into a zoosporangium at maturation to produce a number of zoospores that encyst after a swarming period, and the resulting cysts germinate to produce gun cells. In Haptoglossa zoospora, endoparasitic in nematodes, the cysts of primary zoospores that swam for about 5 min did not develop gun cells but produced secondary zoospores that swam for about 3 h. After encystment of the secondary zoospores, each secondary cyst germinated to produce a gun cell. In the present study, the secondary zoospores of the genus Haptoglossa could be recorded with a videocassette recorder for the first time. The videocassette recording also revealed the infection of a nematodes by H. zoospora and H. heterospora to be composed of two steps of injection of a sporidium by the gun cell, in which the gun cell came in contact with the cuticle of a nematode and produced a spherical adhesorium on the tip of the cell in 0.07–0.1 s in both species. The adhesorium was ∼2 μm in H. zoospora and ∼4 μm in H. heterospora. When the adhesorium infiated to full size, it shot the sporidium into the nematode's body in 0.5–0.65 s and in 0.2–0.5 (or rarely 1.0) s in H. zoospora and H. heterospora, respectively. After shooting, the empty gun cell with an empty cyst case was separated from the cuticle immediately in both species.
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Received: October 3, 2001 / Accepted: December 13, 2001
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Hakariya, M., Masuyama, N. & Saikawa, M. Shooting of sporidium by "gun" cells in Haptoglossa heterospora and H. zoospora and secondary zoospore formation in H. zoospora . Mycoscience 43, 0119–0125 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s102670200018
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s102670200018