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.

EM Studies of Spermatogenesis in Males of C. elegans N. Wolf

N. Wolf

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.