Journal of Cell Science, Vol 6, 365-383, Copyright © 1970 by Company of Biologists

Submitted on June 30, 1969

Spindle Microtubules in the Dividing Nuclei of Trypanosomes

¹ Department of Zoology, University College, London, England; Experimental Proto-zoology Unit, Zoology Department, University of Glasgow, Scotland
² Department of Zoology, University College, London, England

Stages in nuclear division have been identified in sections of bloodstream and cultured trypanosomes examined with the electron microscope.

In the sleeping sickness trypanosome Trypanosoina rhodesiense at division the nuclear envelope and nucleolus-like endosome persist and become stretched along an axis. An acentric spindle of microtubules encases the elongating endosome As division proceeds the endosomal material fragments In bloodstream forms condensed chromatin (chromosomal material) appears to be associated with the nuclear envelope during the phase of nuclear elongation but to fall away from the envelope late in the phase of nuclear constriction. In culture forms the chromatin is not so abundant The discrete chromosomes envisaged by some light microscopists in stained preparations have not been identified using the electron microscope. The spindle may contain only continuous microtubules. It is suggested that the spindle serves to push the two halves of the nucleus apart, and that the nuclear envelope of each half may act as a vehicle in separation of the daughter genomes.

In culture forms of the elasmobranch parasite T. raiae, the endosome appears to disintegrate as the spindle is formed, and from then onwards it becomes difficult to distinguish endosomal material from what might be chromatin. There is no noticeable association between chromatin-like material and the nuclear envelope. Some of the spindle tubules converge on kinetochore-like plaques and the presence of chromosomal microtubules cannot be ruled out.

These preliminary studies indicate that the nuclear division process of trypanosomes is not closely akin to eukaryote mitosis, though it may bear some resemblance to nuclear division in Euglena. Within the genus Trypanosoma, moreover, the nuclear division process may vary from species to species and, possibly, even from one strain to another within a species.

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