Abstract
We have used a technical advance to characterize intracellular concanavalin A (ConA) binding in freeze substituted conidia, germ-tubes, and somatic hyphae of the rice blast pathogen, Magnaporthe grisea . A post-embedding, indirect, procedure was used for 2-sided ConA labelling of several endomembrane compartments with enhanced precision. More than 90% of apical vesicles were labelled with ConA, and accounted for most of the binding within the hyphal apex. Serial section analysis of two morphologically distinct types of smooth membrane cisternae, using different-sized gold particles on each face, showed uniform labelling with no indication of functional segregation. In germ-tubes and conidia, the bounding membrane of vacuolar compartments was labelled by ConA. Among these organelles, separate types could be distinguished based on ultrastructure and internal ConA binding sites. These methods have enhanced the utility of ConA for the in situ characterization of various endomembrane components with remarkable sensitivity and resolution.
Published Version
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