Core-Strukturen in den meiotischen und post-meiotischen Kernen der Spermatogenese von Gryllus domesticus

Summary

electron microscope study of spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis in Gryllus domesticus has revealed the existence of peculiar lamellate bodies which occur both in spermatocyte and spermatid nuclei. These bodies must be considered as multiple complexes of the axial core structures which are regularly found in paired pachytene chromosomes. Their shape is irregular, and their constituent structural elements, although having dimensions and a fine structure identical to those of regular axial complexes, may assemble in sheets rather than ribbons, often in a concentric rather than planparallel multiple layer system.

Spcrmatocyte nuclei may either contain just one or two large bodies of this type, often but not always in close association with the nucleolus and/or the X chromosome, or they may show several such structures of smaller dimensions which have some connection to chromosome fibrils. None of the two types of nuclei simultaneously contains regular axial core complexes. In spermatid nuclei one or two such multiple structures are usually found, again often in association to the X and/or (in O-spermatids) to what appears to be a nucleolus.

It is considered likely that the multiple core complexes are due to the self-assembly of those protein molecules which typically assemble only under the control of and in close association with the pachytene chromosomes to form ordered axial complexes. Their occurrence in spermatids shows that the constituent molecular material may not be decomposed during the meiotic divisions after it is dissociated from the chromosomes.