The movement of melanosomes in melanophore fragments obtained by laser microbeam irradiation

Abstract

The melanophores of the teleost Gymnocorymbus ternetzi are filled with pigment granules, melanosomes, which in response to appropriate treatments, can disperse throughout the cytoplasm or form an aggregate in the cell center. Melanophores with the dispersed pigment were irradiated by a laser microbeam, focused on the cell center by the microscope objective. If the average energy of the microbeam was 6–7 μJ, either the center of the melanophore was damaged and a single ring-shaped fragment was formed, or the cell was broken into several fragments of smaller size. The fragments retained their ability to move the pigment granules. In ring-shaped fragments, after adrenaline treatment, the melanosomes formed a ring-shaped aggregate moving away from both outer and inner (irradiation-produced) margins of the fragment. The smaller fragments treated with adrenaline moved the pigment to their centers. Both small and ring-shaped fragments could aggregate melanosomes as soon as 5 minutes after irradiation.