Elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchungen über die Eizellbildung und Eizellreifung des Lebermooses Sphaerocarpus donnellii Aust.

Abstract

The formation and maturation of the egg of the liverwort, Sphaerocarpus donnellii, was investigated by light, phase contrast and particularly by electron microscopy. The division of the central cell into the egg and the ventral canal cell, and the maturation of the egg, is completed within four days. All stages of this formation and maturation were examined under the electron microscope after fixation in KMnO4 or OsO4. — In the maturing egg there always occur the endoplasmic reticulum, well recognisable plastids with a poorly developed lamellar system, numerous mitochondria and dictyosomes, a rising number of lipid droplets, unknown small bodies limited by a unit membrane, and numerous ribosomes. During maturation the nucleus considerably enlarges and forms evaginations into the cytoplasm. Starch is increasingly deposited in the plastids. A degeneration of plastids has not been found.