Guilliermond - Atkinson 



64 



Cytoplasm 



especially at the borders of the vacuoles and about the nuclei, where 

 it forms as small islands which soon run together in large masses. 

 This elaboration of glycogen takes place without any direct partici- 

 pation of the chondriome, a fact confirmed by DuCHAUSSOY and Sa- 

 RAZIN. The significance of these vesicles, therefore, is completely 

 unknown. It will be seen that similar vesicles form where there is 

 the slightest alteration in the cell. It might be asked, therefore, 

 whether they are not attributable to fixatives. Yet these vesicles 

 always appear at the same stage of development, whatever the fixa- 

 tive employed, and subsequently disappear. It is therefore difficult 

 to accept this opinion, unless it be supposed that the chondriome 

 offers a much greater fragility in that stage of development of the 

 fungi at which they appear. Besides, we shall see that in living 

 Saprolegniaceae similar vesicles may appear and disappear during 

 the course of observation. There is the possibility that these ves- 

 icles indicate an elaboration of a product within the chondriosome 

 which reagents do not reveal. The question remains unanswered 



for the time being. 





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It has been demonstrated, 

 moreover, by our work that 

 red pigments (carotinoids), 

 found in the paraphyses of 

 some Ascomycetes and in cells 

 of some yeasts (Sporobolomy- 

 ces), are not formed in the 

 chondriosomes, but are al- 

 ways scattered in small lipide 

 granules having no genet- 

 ic relationship with the chon- 

 driosomes^. The pigments of 

 the Myxomycetes are not con- 

 nected with the chondriosomes either. They are phenol compounds 

 which exist in the cytoplasm as sphaerocrystals (Mangenot). One 

 sees, therefore, that research on fungi, both by observation of 

 living material and with mitochondrial methods, does not confirm 

 the hypothesis formulated for animal cells, namely, that the chon- 

 driosomes participate in the secretory phenomena of the cells. It 

 is seen that the role of the chondriosomes in plant cells still escapes 

 us. 



Portions of a living filament of 

 Saprolegnia showing successive stages of vesicula- 

 tion of the chondriosomes. C, chondriosomes. Gl, 

 lipide granules. N, nucleus. 



Physical and histochemical characteristics of chondriosomes :- 



It is possible, while observing living chondriosomes in the Sapro- 

 legniaceae to specify at the same time their physical and histochem- 

 ical characteristics. In these fungi, as has been seen, the chondrio- 

 somes appear as mitochondria only at the terminal portions of the 

 hyphae which will form the zoosporangia and zoospores. Every- 

 where else they appear as long, undulating, sometimes branched 



'Other pigments of the paraphyses of Ascomycetes are, on the contrary, localized in the 

 vacuoles, as is the case in Galactinia succosa. Let us add that some fungi also enclose in their 

 Vacuoles a yellow pigment which is a flavin, as is the case in Eremothecium Ashbyii. 



