Particle arrays in earthworm postjunctional membranes.

Abstract

Analysis of freeze-fractured earthworm body wall muscle reveals distinctive trough-shaped concavities in the protoplasmic leaflet of the muscle cell membrane which contain diagonally oriented rows of particles sometimes in highly ordered arrays. The troughs correspond to the concave postjunctional patches of sarcolemma seen previously in thin sections of myoneural junctions identified as cholinergic, and the intramembranous particles within the troughs correspond in concentration and arrangement to granular elements present in the outer dense lamina of the postjunctional membrane, interpreted as acetylcholine receptors. The freeze-fracture data provide a more accurate picture of the arrangement of these putative receptors within the plane of the membrane, and indicate that they extend into the membrane at least as far as its hydrophobic layer.