IIG BASAL GRANULE OF FLAGELLUM 



blepliaroplasts, when more than one is present, are often so closely packed 

 together that it may be difficult to distinguish them individually. 



The blepharopjast may be situated upon the nuclear membrane, as 

 in Cercomonas, or quite separate from it, as in the majority of other 

 flagellates. It has already been shown above that certain observations 

 tend to indicate that the blepharoplast is of nuclear origin. In certain 

 stages a flagellate m.ay lose its flagellum or flagella and become a rou.nded 

 body with a single nucleus. When the flagellum is about to be re-formed, 

 it is claimed that a granule separates from the karyosome of the nucleus 

 and passes out into the cytoplasm through the nuclear membrane (Fig. 31). 



Fig. 67. — Trichomonas atufiistd, showing the Spiral Parabasal Body immediately 



ANTERIOR TO THE NUCLEUS ( X CU. 2,5()0). (AfTER AlEXEIEFF, 1924.) 



An axoneme is then formed from it as an outgrowth, and when the surface 

 of the body is reached it takes with it a sheath of cytoplasm and becomes 

 a flagellum. 



In association with the blepharoplast, whether it is on the nuclear 

 membrane or separate from it, there may occur one or more masses of 

 a substance which stains deeply with many chromatin stains. To such 

 bodies Janicki (1911) has given the name parabasal (see p. 53). The 

 name kinetoplast is employed here to designate the compound structure 

 consisting of a united parabasal and blepharoplast. Kinetoplasts are 

 typically seen in trypanosomes and allied flagellates. Parabasal bodies 

 have been described as occurring in Trichomonas by Janicki (1915), 

 Wenrich (1921), and Alexeieff (1924), but they are only detected after 

 special fixation — e.g., osmic acid (Figs. 67 and 275). 



