Abstract
DURING the past few years, in the course of an investigation of the chemical composition of the acroblasts (‘Golgi apparatus’) in the spermatogenesis of the water-boatman (Notonecta glauca), I have been impressed by the structure of the mitochondrial Nebenkern of this animal. The male germ-cells of Notonecta are very large, the spermatozoon being more than a centimetre long, and the Nebenkern is probably the largest single body of mitochondrial origin that occurs in any organism. Its development and subsequent history were worked out long ago by Pantel and de Sinéty1, Poisson2 and Voïnov3. It is formed by the fusion of the mitochondria present in the young spermatid.
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References
Pantel, J., and de Sinéty, R., La Cellule, 23, 87 (1906).
Poisson, R., Arch. Zool. exp. gén., 66, 23 (1927).
Voïnov, D., Arch. Zool. exp. gén., 67, 1 (1927).
Sjöstrand, F. S., and Rhodin, J., Exp. Cell Res., 4, 426 (1953).
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BAKER, J. Mitochondrial Nebenkern of the Water-boatman. Nature 177, 1039–1040 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/1771039b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1771039b0
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