Abstract
Unflagellated amoebae ofPhysarum polycephalum (Myxomycete) possess a pro-flagellar apparatus. A tridimensional ultrastructural model of the pro-flagellar apparatus is proposed, based upon observations of thin sections of whole amoebae and of isolated nucleo-pro-flagellar apparatus complexes. The pro-flagellar apparatus is composed by the same basic elements as the fully differentiated flagellar apparatus and differs from the latter by three main aspects: the two kinetosomes of the pro-flagellar apparatus are devoid of flagella; the posterior kinetosome is directed forward, and, with the exception of microtubular arrays 1 and 5, all the other microtubular arrays (2–4) have a reduced length, although they show a normal number of constituting microtubules. We demonstrate the existence of an extension of the posterior para-kinetosomal structure which is present both in the pro-flagellar and in the flagellar apparatus. The growth of the microtubules of the pericentriolar arrays and of the flagella could be the main event which leads to the formation of the fully developed flagellar apparatus inPhysarum amoebae.
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