Abstract
The ultrastructural features of oogenesis were examined in the spionid polychaeteStreblospio benedicti. Paired ovaries are attached to the genital blood vessels extending into the coelomic space from the circumintestinal sinus. The genital blood vessel wall is composed of flattened, peritoneal cells, large follicle cells and developing oocytes. Vitellogenesis occurs while the oocytes are attached to the blood vessel wall. Two morphologically distinguishable types of yolk are synthesized. Type I is synthesized first by an autosynthetic process apparently involving pinocytosis and the conjoined efforts of the Golgi complex and rough endoplasmic reticulum. Type II yolk appears later through a heterosynthetic process involving the infolding of the oolemma and the sequestering of materials from the blood vessel lumen by endocytosis. During this process, blood pigment molecules appear to be incorporated into endocytotic pits, vesicles and eventually the forming yolk body. The significance of heterosynthetic yolk formation to the general reproductive strategies of polychaetous annelids is discussed.
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