JOURNAL OF BACrERIOLOGY, May 1972, p. 739-742Copyright © 1972 American Society for Microbiology

Vol. 110, No. 2Printed in U.S.A.

NOTES

Golgi Apparatus in the Postmeiotic Basidium ofCoprinus lagopus

DAVID J. McLAUGHLIN

Department of Botany, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Received for publication 3 February 1972

A golgi apparatus believed to be involved in basidiospore formation has beenfound in Coprinus lagopus following meiosis in the basidium.

A golgi apparatus has not previously beenreported in postmeiotic basidia of Coprinuslagopus sensu Buller (2, 5, 6), although thisorganelle, consisting of a single dictyosome,has been convincingly demonstrated in thevegetative stage of a number of Basidiomy-cetes (3, 4). This paper describes a golgi appa-ratus in the postmeiotic basidium of C. Ia-gopus which may be involved in basidiosporeformation.

Fruitbodies were obtained by crossingstrains BC 9/55 and BC 9/66 on 50 ml of amodification of Brodie's (1) medium and incu-bating at 32 C for 4 to 6 days in darkness andthen at 25.5 ± 1 C with 12 hr of light per day.A crop of fruitbodies in a flask matured si-multaneously, and basidial development wasrelated to the light cycle. Two stages werestudied in the electron microscope: prophase Iof meiosis at 3 hr and early interphase II ofmeiosis at 7 hr after the beginning of the lightcycle the day before fruitbody maturation.Pieces of gill were fixed in 1% aqueous KMnO4for 30 min at about 23 C, dehydrated in ace-tone, and Epon-embedded.At early interphase II, when basidiospore

formation began (spores up to 2 ,m diameter),dictyosomes were easily detected, and distinc-tive vesicles (usually 75 to 95 nm diameter)were numerous in the basidia and basidio-spores (Fig. 1-4). Vesicles appeared to form oncisternae and on tubular elements of the dic-tyosome. At prophase I, a golgi apparatus wasdifficult to detect and vesicles were absent. At

this stage, Lu (6) reported one small golgi ap-paratus per basidium. The dictyosomes at in-terphase II consisted of a single cisternum(Fig. 1, 4, 6) as reported in other Basidiomy-cetes (4, 5), and there was an extensive endo-plasmic reticulum present which was con-nected to the nuclear membrane and appar-ently was associated with the golgi apparatusas reported in other organisms (7). The num-erous vesicles present in basidiospores werenot seen clearly to fuse with the plasma mem-brane, although this may occur.A light microscope, cytochemical study of

glycol methacrylate-embedded material (un-published data) showed carbohydrates stainedby the periodic acid-Schiff reaction at earlyinterphase II which were not removed from thebasidium by malt diastase (analytical, Nutri-tional Biochemical Corp.). Glycogen was re-moved from the hymenium by this treatment,and the remaining cytoplasmic carbohydrateswhich were confined to the basidia were prob-ably in the golgi vesicles. After using the peri-odic acid-silver hexamine technique (8, 9) forultrastructural localization of carbohydrates,only areas of the basidia presumed to containcarbohydrates reacted, specifically walls,septal swellings, glycogen, and golgi vesicles(Fig. 5 and 6).

I am indebted to Mary Pelvit and Rodney Kuehn fortechnical assistance and to the Graduate School, Universityof Minnesota, for financial support. Publication costs werepartly borne by the Hayden Fund, University of Minnesota.

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FIG. 1-3. Basidia at interphase II of meiosis. Fig. 1: the basidium containing extensive endoplasmic retic-ulum some of which arises from the nuclear membrane, dictyosomes (D), and vesicles (V) with distinctivegranular contents. Abbreviations: nucleus (N), glycogen (Gl), lipid droplet (L), mitochondrion (M). Scale,bar = 0.5 pm. Fig. 2 and 3: vesicles arising from tubular elements of the dictyosome.

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FIG. 4-6. Basidia at interphase II of meiosis. Fig. 4: apex of basidium with two sterigmata at left. Somepossible dictyosomes with tubular elements (arrows). Nucleus (N) associated with endoplasmic reticulum,dictyosomes (D), and vesicles (V). Scale, bar = 1 ,im. Fig. 5 and 6: periodic acid-silver hexamine-treated sec-tions, poststained with uranyl and lead to make membranes (unstained by silver hexamine) visible. Silvergrains formed over vesicles (V), glycogen (GO, cell wall (W), and dictyosome (D). Mitochondrion (M) andlipid droplets (L) unstained by silver hexamine. Scale, same as Fig. 1-3 (0.5 Am.)

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LITERATURE CITED

1. Brodie, H. J. 1948. Variation in fruit bodies of Cyathusstercoreus produced in culture. Mycologia 40:614-626.

2. Clemencon, H. 1969. Reifung und endoplasmatischesRetikulum der Agaricales-Basidie. Z. Pilzk. 35:295-304.

3. Girbardt, M. 1969. Die Ultrastruktur der Apikalregionvon Pilzhyphen. Protoplasma 67:413-441.

4. Grove, S. N., and C. E. Bracker. 1970. Protoplasmic orga-nization of hyphal tips among fungi: vesicles andSpitzenk6rper. J. Bacteriol. 104:989-1009.

5. Lerbs, V. 1971. Licht-und elektronenmikroskopische Urn-tersuchungen an meiotischen Basidien von Coprinusradiatus (Bolt) Fr. Arch. Mikrobiol. 77:308-330.

J. BACTERIOL.

6. Lu, B. C. 1966. Golgi apparatus in the basidiomyceteCoprinus lagopus. J. Bacteriol. 92:1831-1834.

7. Morre, D. J., H. H. Mollenhauer, and C. E. Bracker.1970. Origin and continuity of golgi apparatus, p. 82-126. In J. Reinert and H. Ursprung, (ed.), Results andproblems in cell differentiation, vol. 2. Springer-Ver-lag, Berlin.

8. Pickett-Heaps, J. D. 1967. Preliminary attempts at ultra-structural polysaccharide localization in root tip cells.J. Histochem. Cytochem. 15:442-455.

9. Ramsbourg, A. 1967. An improved silver methenaminetechnique for the detection of periodic acid-reactivecomplex carbohydrates with the electron microscope. J.Histochem. Cytochem. 15:409-412.

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