biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 7:136-145, 1965 | DOI: 10.1007/BF02920629

The classic Golgi apparatus and vacuoles

Ivan Hršel¹

¹ Institute of Experimental Biology and Genetics, Institute of Experimental Botany, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Praha

The dense vacuoles, considered to be the classic Golgi apparatus in the root meristem ofFagopyrum, were studied by the following methods: 1. Impregnation methods for the demonstration of the Golgi apparatus, 2. cytochemical methods, 3. electron microscopic methods in the light microscope and 4. the electron microscope. A comparison was made with the classic Golgi apparatus in animal cells in the light and electron microscope.
Dense vacuoles inFagopyrum and also evidently in other plants, were taken for the classic Golgi apparatus on account of their morphological similarity to the Golgi apparatus in animal cells on impregnation with silver and osmium and their staining preperties with lipoid methods. Dense vacuoles differ from the classic Golgi apparatus in other chemical properties, such as content of phenol substances, etc. No formations were found in animal cells which were similar to dense vacuoles on investigating by electron microscopy. In the electron microscope dense vacuoles have the appearance of derivatives of the normal light vacuoles known in plant cells. They therefore belong to vacuome of plant cell and cannot be analogous to the classic Golgi apparatus in animal cells. Thus the use of the term Golgi apparatus for dense vacuoles is not well founded.
A comparison was made of fixation and impregnation used in the light microscope with fixation in the electron microscope. After fixation with permanganate, dense vacuoles have the same shape as after impregnation. After fixation with permanganate, they stain an intense black in the same way as after impregnation with silver and osmium. The form of the vacuoles is dependent on the fixation used. The comparison was made in the light microscope.

Received: October 15, 1964; Published: March 1, 1965  Show citation