ON A RETICULAR DERIVATIVE FROM GOLGI BODIES IN THE MERISTEM OF Anthoceros

Abstract

Micrographs of dictyosomes in face view and in profile, together with serial sections representing both these planes, are reproduced from three sample cells at different developmental stages in the meristem of Anthoceros. The stages are: a vegetative cell at anaphase of a mitotic division, a vegetative cell in an early stage of postmitotic extension growth, and a young spore mother cell in the act of rounding up before the onset of meiosis. The observations suggest that proliferation of tubules from the edges of the dictyosomal cisternae into the cytoplasm is occurring with varying intensity and with slightly different morphological expression in all three cells. In all, the tubules are joined into a reticulum which exhibits local swellings at varying distances from the unfenestrated part of the subtending cisterna. A comparison is suggested between the observed reticulum and "smooth" endoplasmic reticulum of animals but it is not claimed that all the cytoplasmic tubules detectable in Anthoceros need have arisen in this way. Morphological differences discernible between tubules near their point of attachment to dictyosomes and others apparently involved in the formation of the new nuclear membrane at the end of a cell division could mean that more than one category of tube may exist in these cells. A plea is registered for restraint in the formulation of far reaching theories until more facts are available on unequivocal evidence.