When trichocysts are triggered to discharge their contents the body of the trichocyst expands 8 or 9 times into a long needle like filament, however, the trichocyst tip does not change shape. The trichocyst membrane remains behind and the plasma membrane quickly reseals over the pellicular ridge (see Knoll, Braun and Plattner, J. Cell Biol. 133:1295-1304, 1991.) This cell was in day 5 of a culture age study. TEM taken on 3/3/80 by R. Allen with Hitachi HU11A operating at 75kV. Neg. 8,500X. Bar = 0.5?m.
Biological Process: Organelle localization, Cortical cytoskeleton organization
Standard glutaraldehyde fixation followed by osmium tetroxide, dehydrated in alcohol and embedded in an epoxy resin. Microtome sections prepared at approximately 75nm thickness. The negative was printed to paper and the image was scanned to Photoshop. This digitized image is available for qualitative analysis. Additional information available at (http://www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu/allen/).
Author: Richard Allen (University of Hawaii)
Source: The Cell: An Image Library
