Worm Breeder's Gazette 2(2): 12a
These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.
The gonad of the adult male is a single reflexed cylindrical structure, containing all stages of spermatogenesis in a single wave of development. In the end, distal from the cloaca, the cells are syncytial, surrounding a common core, similar to the arrangement in the distal arm of the hermaphrodite gonad. Further toward the cloaca, the different stages of meiosis are seen. Cells in diplotene and diakinesis contain many golgi complexes. Some golgis are associated with vesicles that have a dark amorphous collar around their necks. Other golgis are next to bodies containing microfilaments. After the vesicles and filament bodies grow, their membranes fuse to form a composite structure. The fused membranes develop dark staining thickenings and fold into convoluted sacs and tubes. The cells then go through the two meiotic divisions. At telophase II, all the cellular organelles cluster at the spindle poles. Cleavage furrows separate the daughter cells and slough off a substantial volume of cytoplasm. In the resulting spermatid the nucleus condenses to a dark staining mass of chromatin. The microfilaments of the fibrous bodies disappear. The cytoplasm becomes denser and contains numerous wavy tubular elements. The composite structures fuse with the plasma membrane forming an invagination of extracellular space that is partially filled with the convoluted membranes and the cytoplasm trapped within the foldings.