Full text loading...
Abstract
SUMMARY: The wall of a blastospore of Candida albicans is organized in a multilayer structure with amorphous, granular and fibrous components of various electron densities. Striking modifications in this structural pattern occurred when a blastospore was induced to form a germ tube, as shown by fluorescence microscopy of primulin-treated organisms and electron microscopy of thin sections. The essential ‘building’ change was the formation from inside the blastospore wall of an electron-transparent layer in which materials of various shape and dimensions were embedded. This layer grew out through a definite zone of the blastospore wall, thus forming an early germ-tube. Germ-tube emergence from the blastospore was made possible by degradative changes of wall structures overlaying the electron-transparent layer, caused probably by combined mechanical and lytic (enzymatic) actions. However, each component of these structures was resynthe-sized at various moments of germ-tube elongation. Therefore the wall of the germ tube had a stratification comparable to that of a blastospore wall; only quantitative differences in the thickness of the constitutive layers existed between them. Some data suggested that the electron-transparent layer that developed during germ-tube formation was rich in chitin.
- Received:
- Published Online: