spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Weber, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Weber, J.

Journal of Cell Science, Vol 108, Issue 1 403-412, Copyright © 1995 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Novel tools for the study of development, migration and turnover of nematocytes (cnidarian stinging cells)

J Weber
Zoological Institute, University of Zurich-Irchel, Switzerland.

The rhodamine derivatives tetramethyl-rhodamine-5/6-maleimide (TROMI) and tetramethyl-rhodamine-6-isothiocyanate (TRITC) were allowed to react with living Hydra vulgaris. The two fluorescent dyes stain the polyps to different degrees, apparently without impairing their viability and behaviour. Concerning nematocytes, TROMI preferentially couples to cytoskeletal elements only of mounted nematocytes whereas TRITC selectively reacts with structural components of cysts of late nematoblasts, which thereafter develop apparently normally into mature nematocytes. Hence TROMI-labelling indicates that nematocytes are mounted and ready for discharge; TRITC-labelling can be used as a tool to investigate the final maturation, migration and installation of nematocytes in Hydra. Together with a new non-fixative method to dissociate Hydra polyps into single, identifiable cells, the two labelling methods allow direct quantitative dynamic studies of nematocyte turnover and open new possibilities of investigating the regulation and the mechanisms of nematocyte supply and migration.




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1995