Worm Breeder's Gazette 3(2): 19a

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.

Title unknown.

Authors unknown.

We have just completed an EM study of L1 and L2 gonads in 
hermaphrodite and male worms.  Worms were sexed by the presence or 
absence of the enlarged B cell in the tail before sectioning.  Sexing 
was confirmed by coelomocyte position around the young gonad after 
sectioning.
The major purpose of this study was to see the cytoplasmic 
boundaries of the gonadal somatic progenitor cells (Z1 and Z4) and 
their descendants.  (The cells in the gonadal primordium are Z1, Z2, 
Z3, and Z4 from anterior to posterior.  Z2 and Z3 are the germ line 
progenitor cells.)
Two findings seem particularly interesting to us.  1) The morphology 
of young gonads, before Z1 and Z4 divide, is the same in 
hermaphrodites and males.  Z1 possesses a thin cytoplasmic process 
that extends posteriorly, and Z4 possesses one that extends anteriorly 
along the ventral surface of the gonad.  These processes make contact 
mid-ventrally.  No syncytial interconnection was observed in serial 
sections of the region where the processes meet.  No special junctions 
were observed between the processes.  2) The somatic cells that occupy 
the tip positions of the elongating gonadal arms (Z1.aa leads the 
anterior hermaphrodite arm and Z4.pp leads the posterior hermaphrodite 
arm; Z1.paa or Z4.aaa leads the single arm in males) have a common 
ultrastructure.  These cells, and only these cells, exhibit distended 
cisternae of rough ER and an extensive Golgi apparatus.  All the other 
somatic and germ line cells are packed with free ribosomes and 
mitochondria.