A cytochemical study of the Golgi apparatus of the spermatid during spermiogenesis in the rat

Abstract

The reactivity of the various components of the Golgi apparatus of rat spermatids for three phosphatase activities (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphatase, NADPase; thiamine pyrophosphatase, TPPase; cytidine monophosphatase, CMPase) and the incorporation of ³H-fucose by the spermatids was analyzed at the 19 steps of spermiogenesis, i.e., during and after this organelle elaborated the glycoprotein-rich acrosomic system. During steps 1–3, the Golgi apparatus produced, in addition to the proacrosomic granules, multivesicular bodies that became associated with the chromatoid body. NADPase was located within the four or five intermediate saccules of Golgi stacks, and TPPase was found in the last one or two saccules on the trans aspect of the stacks from steps 1 to 17 of spermiogenesis. CMPase was located within the thick saccular GERL elements found in the trans region of the Golgi apparatus from steps 1 to 7 of spermiogenesis, but the CMPase-positive GERL disappeared from the Golgi apparatus after its detachment from the acrosomic system at step 8. The acrosomic system itself was reactive for CMPase and TPPase but was negative for NADPase, while the multivesicular bodies were CMPase and NADPase positive but unreactive for TPPase. Tritiated-fucose was readily incorporated within the Golgi apparatus of steps 1–17 spermatids; in steps 1–7 it was subsequently incorporated within the acrosomic system and multivesicular bodies. These various data indicated (1) that the Golgi apparatus of spermatids, although it loses its CMPase-positive GERL element in step 8, retains evidence of functional capacity until it degenerates in step 17; (2) that in early spermatids the various saccular components of the Golgi are specialized with respect to enzymatic activities; and (3) that each Golgi region may contribute in a coordinated fashion to the formation of the acrosomic system and multivesicular bodies.