title: An unusual architecture of occluding junctions between surface cells in teleost ovarian follicles (Plecoglossus altivelis).
abstract: An unusual architecture of occluding junctions between surface cells in teleost ovarian follicles was observed by electron microscopy, by using the freeze-fracture technique. On the P-face, double strands of intramembraneous particles are observed. A narrow furrow-like gap is recognized between two rows of particles in such double strands. On the E-face, two types of grooves can be distinguished. Type I groove consists of a wide furrow. Type II groove, which appears to be sequent to type I groove, consists of a pair of "sub-grooves" running parallel. Further, a row of particles appears to be located in the bottom of type I groove or between two "sub-grooves" of type II groove. These observations suggest that the double strands on the P-face are registered with the grooves (type I or type II) on the complementary E-face and that a row of particles on the E-face is registered with a furrow-like region between two rows in the double strands on the P-face. In other words, a single unit of the juncture of the present occluding junction is thought to consist of triplicated junctional strands.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005614:Freeze Fracturing; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000648:ultrastructure*