Formation of chlamydospores in Gilbertella persicaria

Abstract

The cytological events involved in the transformation of vegetative hyphae of the zygomycete Gilbertella persicaria (Eddy) Hesseltine into chlamydospores were studied with light and electron microscopy. Thirty hours after sporangiospores were inoculated into YPG broth, swellings appeared along the aseptate hyphae. Later, septa, traversed by plasmodesmata, delimited each end of the hyphal swellings and compartmentalized these hyphal regions as they differentiated into chlamydospores. Nonswollen regions adjacent to chlamydospores remained as isthmuses. Two additional wall layers appeared within the vegetative wall of the developing chlamydospores. An alveolate, electron-dense wall formed first, and then an electron-transparent layer containing concentrically oriented fibers formed between this layer and the plasma membrane. Rather than a mere condensation of cytoplasm, development and maturation of the multinucleate chlamydospores involved extensive cytoplasmic changes such as an increase in reserve products, lipid and glycogen, an increase and then disappearance of vacuoles, and the breakdown of many mitochondria. Underlying the plasma membrane during chlamydospore wall formation were endoplasmic reticulum, multivesicular bodies, vesicles with fibrillar contents, vesicles with electron-transparent contents, and cisternal rings containing the Golgi apparatus marker enzyme, thiamine pyrophosphatase. Acid phosphatase activity was localized cytochemically in a cisterna which enclosed mitochondria and in vacuoles which contained membrane fragments. Tightly packed membrane whorls and single membrane bounded sacs with finely granular matrices surrounding vacuoles were unique during chlamydospore development. Microbodies were rare in the mature chlamydospore, but endoplasmic reticulum was closely associated with lipid globules. As chlamydospores developed, the cytoplasm in the isthmus became highly vacuolated, lipid globules were closely associated with vacuoles, mitochondria were broken down in vacuoles, unusual membrane configurations appeared, and eventually the membranes degenerated. Unlike chlamydospores, walls of the isthmus did not thicken, but irregularly shaped appositions containing numerous channels formed at intervals on the inside of these walls. The pattern of cytoplasmic transformations during chlamydospore development is similar to events leading to the formation of zygospores and sporangiospores.