An electron microscopic study on tetrasporogenesis of the parasitic red alga Erythrocystis Montagnei (Derb. and Sol.) Silva.
An ultrastructural study has been carried out on the cells involved in the formation and ripening of tetraspores in the red alga Erythrocystis Montagnei. This organism is considered a parasitic species, although relationships with the host plant are not completely known. The work reveals a series of morphological changes in dictyosomes, which assume different dispositions of cisternae and produce different kinds of vesicles in the various stages of tetrasporogenesis. Plastids reach their complete differentiation when the cleavage furrows are nearly complete. Their complexity is comparable to that visible in autotrophic red algae. It is confirmed that during tetrasporogenesis the cytological changes are less profound than those which take place in the course of carposporogenesis.
D002454:Cell Differentiation; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000648:ultrastructure