Ultrastructure Methods in Cuticle Research. In: Miller TA, editor. Cuticle Techniques in Arthropods. New York: Springer; 1980. pp. 91-144. [DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-6076-9_3]

Peripheral nuclear matrix actin forms perinuclear shells

Perinuclear actin shells have been reported in a variety of organisms. The shells have been identified by staining perinuclear material with fluorescently-labelled phalloidin, but have not been localized to a specific subcellular compartment at the ultrastructural level. We show here that the shells of 3T3 cells lie in the peripheral nuclear matrix. Nuclear shells and matrix actin in other parts of the nucleus are not usually detected by immunohistochemical staining because they are inaccessible to antibodies or to phalloidin. Immunohistochemical detection of nuclear actin is only possible during its deposition at the end of mitosis, or in interphase nuclei that have been extracted with detergent, digested with nucleases and washed with high salt buffers.

Caterpillars have evolved lungs for hemocyte gas exchange

Since insect blood usually lacks oxygen-carrying pigments it has always been assumed that respiratory needs are met by diffusion in the gas-filled lumen of their tracheal systems. Outside air enters the tracheal system through segmentally arranged spiracles, diffuses along tubes of cuticle secreted by tracheal epithelia and then to tissues through tracheoles, thin walled cuticle tubes that penetrate between cells. The only recognized exceptions have been blood cells (hemocytes), which are not tracheated because they float in the hemolymph. In caterpillars, anoxia has an effect on the structure of the hemocytes and causes them to be released from tissues and to accumulate on thin walled tracheal tufts near the 8th (last) pair of abdominal spiracles. Residence in the tufts restores normal structure. Hemocytes also adhere to thin-walled tracheae in the tokus compartment at the tip of the abdomen. The specialized tracheal system of the 8th segment and tokus may therefore be a lung for hemocytes, a novel concept in insect physiology. Thus, although as a rule insect tracheae go to tissues, this work shows that hemocytes go to tracheae.

Preservation and contrast without osmication or section staining

Conventional treatment of tissues for sectioning and transmission electron microscopy uses aldehyde fixation and osmium tetroxide postfixation. Although the result is aesthetically pleasing, osmication destroys some cell components and reduces the chemical activity of others, such as reaction with antibodies and lectins. We have found that aldehyde fixation followed by uranyl acetate preserves and contrasts most structures and visualizes some that are not easily seen after osmication. Aldehyde/UA treated tissues have enough contrast to be observed without section staining while retaining some of the chemical activity that is lost through osmication. Sections of tissues with good preservation and contrast can be used for immunogold and lectin-gold labelling of at least some molecules.

A new procedure for handling impervious biological specimens

A new application of techniques for preparing impervious biological specimens for light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been developed. Microwave irradiation was used to facilitate fixation. A priming technique was used to increase the bonding of the outer surface of the specimens with the resin. Priming the waxy or cuticular surface with Z-6040 (gamma-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane) solved the problem of specimen "pull out" from the resin. Insect specimens with various types of cuticles (waxy or chitinous) and seeds were successfully studied ultrastructurally using this technique.

Improved preservation of phospholipid-rich multilamellar bodies in conventionally embedded mammalian lung tissue--an electron spectroscopic study

Different conventional methods of tissue processing were studied to determine the extent to which phospholipid-rich multilamellar bodies of pulmonary alveolar epithelial type II cells of the pig were preserved. Prolonged treatment with half-saturated aqueous uranyl acetate yielded excellent results on the stabilization of the multilamellar substructure, irrespective of whether glutaraldehyde-paraformaldehyde or glutaraldehyde-tannic acid was used as a primary fixative. The lamellar periodicities were observed to be 5.5-6.1 nm. Differences in the phosphorus distribution among several types of lipid bodies of alveolar epithelial type II cells were studied by means of electron spectroscopic imaging and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Multilamellar bodies gave phosphorus signals which were significantly higher than those obtained from granular regions of composite bodies, whereas homogeneous bodies gave phosphorus signals which were even lower than those obtained from mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum membranes or ribosomes.

Homeostatic and developmental control of cell size and shape in an insect epithelium, the epidermis of Manduca sexta

In contrast to previously described transformations of insect epidermal cells, morphological changes in the larval epidermis of Manduca sexta involve large changes in cell volume: a threefold increase at the beginning and a twofold decrease at the end of the last feeding phase. The volume changes are determined, in part, or entirely, by changes in cell height (cell elongation and cell shortening). Initial cell elongation occurs in a region-specific manner, whereas subsequent cell shortening affects all of the epidermis equally. As shown by ligation experiments and hormone treatments in tissue culture, larval changes in cell height, unlike cell elongation and differentiation in prepupae, are not regulated by developmental hormones (juvenile hormones, ecdysteroids). Instead, the maintenance of a normal columnar epithelium in fifth instars depends on continuous growth. Lack of food, especially protein, results in reversible cell shortening at any time during the feeding phase. Intake of water does not mitigate this cellular response; cell shortening is also insensitive to ouabain but inhibited by cold treatments. We propose that during larval growth epidermal cell height is under specific homeostatic control, independent of mechanisms regulating cell width, ploidy levels, or mitotic activity.

Roles of dopa decarboxylase and phenoloxidase in the melanization of the tobacco hornworm and their control by 20-hydroxyecdysone

When Manduca sexta larvae are allatectomized 5 h before head capsule slippage (HCS) in the final larval molt, the new larval cuticle contains granules that melanize 3 h before ecdysis when the ecdysteroid titer falls (Curtis et al. 1984). In both the epidermis and hemolymph of these allatectomized larvae dopamine was higher than dopa prior to and at the time of melanization. Dopamine also increased in the new cuticle as melanization began. Dopa decarboxylase (DDC) activity increased in the epidermis, cuticle, and fat body beginning 16 h after HCS, with a two-fold greater increase in the epidermis of allatectomized larvae. Both alpha-MDH and alpha-fluoromethyl-dopa inhibited epidermal DDC activity and inhibited melanization in vitro when dopa was used as a precursor. Addition of dopamine to the medium allowed melanization in the presence of the inhibitors. All these results indicate that dopamine is likely the primary precursor of cuticular melanin. The diphenoloxidase in the premelanin granules was activated in vivo between 19 and 21 h after HCS and was found to prefer dopamine to dopa and not to convert tyrosine to melanin. The activation of the prophenoloxidase was inhibited by 20-hydroxyecdysone (20-HE), both in vivo and in vitro, if hormone was given by 16 h after HCS. Infusion of 1.2 microgram/ml 20-HE into allatectomized larvae for 24 h from HCS prevented both the increase in DDC activity and the activation of the premelanin granules. Although the larvae ecdysed after a 15 h delay, melanization never occurred.

Preparation and partial characterisation of a multilamellar body fraction from Schistosoma mansoni

Multilaminate vesicles were purified, from homogenised whole Schistosoma mansoni adults, by differential density centrifugation on sucrose gradients, following methods previously employed for isolating multilamellar bodies (MLB) from mammalian lung. Morphometric analysis, on electron micrographs, of the pelleted fraction revealed that the pellet contained at least 56% MLB (by volume of solid material). An apparent projection core was described in both fixed MLB from our fraction and in unfixed MLB from a freeze thaw preparation of whole worms. The phospholipid-protein ratio of the MLB fraction was 1.6:1. The major phospholipid classes were separated and identified by quantitative, two dimensional, thin layer chromatography on silica gel. Phosphatidylcholine was the predominant phospholipid in the MLB fraction, comprising 57% of the total phospholipids. Phosphatidic acid phosphatase, previously reported from lung MLB but not schistosomes, was detected in the fraction. The high activity of this enzyme suggests a more active role for schistosome MLB than that of a mere reservoir of preformed membrane precursors.