Chapter XI 



119 — 



Role of Ghondriosomes 



SKY, DuESBERG, LEVI, and MiLOViDOV, is today abandoned by PoR- 

 TIER himself. Nevertheless it had the merit of initiating investi- 

 gations which have produced methods by which chondriosomes can 

 be distinguished in cells from symbiotic and parasitic bacteria, 

 CowDRY and Olitsky, Duesberg, and Milovidov have described 

 methods by which, in the cells of nodules of legumes and in the 

 adipose cells of cockroaches, symbiotic bacteria can be distin- 

 guished from the chondriosomes by means of differential staining. 

 By these methods MiLOVlDOV found that the symbiotic bacteria and 

 the chondriosomes, including the plastids, are both distributed to 

 the daughter cells during mitosis but not in the same manner. He 

 has demonstrated, besides, that centrifuging brings about a dis- 

 placement of the symbiotic bacteria in the direction of the centri- 

 fugal force but has no influence on 

 the chondriosomes and plastids. The 

 symbiotic bacteria, therefore, are 

 heavier than the cytoplasm and are 

 heavier than the chondriosomes and 

 plastids. (Figs. 80, 81). 



This work on animal cells led 

 Regaud to consider the chondrio- 

 somes as "organelles having an eclec- 

 tic and pharmaceutical function in 

 the cell" i.e., as "electosomes". Ac- 

 cording to this theory, the chondrio- 

 somes by means of a physico-chemical 

 mechanism still unknown, draw from 

 the surrounding medium the mate- 

 rials necessary to the life of the cell, 

 transform them and finally release 

 the product of elaboration, so that it 

 may be excreted or kept in reserve. 

 An analogous theory was applied by 

 P. A. Dangeard to his "vacuome" 

 which he likened to the chondriome. 



Mayer and Schaeffer, basing their idea on reports according to 

 which the fatty acids contained in the lecithins are made to play 

 the role of self -oxidizing bodies have suggested that the chondrio- 

 somes, by virtue of their lipoprotein constitution, might be the 

 center for the very general function of reduction and oxidation 

 and, in this way, have a role to play in the respiratory phenomena 

 and indirectly in cellular synthesis. 



Along these same lines may be mentioned reports of a certain 

 number of authors who have considered that the chondriosomes 

 and plastids are the source of various diastases or other substances 

 playing an important role in the oxidation-reduction process in 

 cells. Various workers have revealed in the chondriosomes the 

 presence of oxidases or peroxidases (Marinesco, Prenant, Man- 

 genot) . Chodat and Rouge found that in plant cells the oxidases 

 are localized in the plastids. In these last years Joyet-Lavergne 



Fig. 80. — Cells of lupin. Bac- 

 teria and chondriosomes differential- 

 ly stained. The bacteria (grey) 

 cluster at the poles during mitosis, 

 the chondriosomes (black) surround 

 the chromatic spindle. (After MiLO- 

 VlDOV) . 



