Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T08:26:13.471Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Note on the morphology of Herpetomonas and Crithidia, with some remarks on “physiological degeneration.”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

N. H. Swellengrebel
N. H. Swellengrebel
Affiliation:
(Hygienic Institute, University of Amsterdam.)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

1. In accordance with the views held by Chatton and Alilaire (1908) and by Roubaud (1909), I have seen that a true trypanosome-stage occurs in the life-history of Crithidia calliphorae. These try-panosomes have an undulating membrane and cannot be considered as herpetomonads with their blepharoplasts situated behind the nucleus and a completely internal flagellum (Woodcock), nor are they herpetomonads with the flagellum bent back along the body of the cell (Mackinnon). This existence of a trypanosome stage in the life-history of Crithidia is quite comprehensible if we consider that in many cases true Trypanosomata are changed into Crithidiae when they pass from the blood into the gut of an invertebrate host (T. gambiense, T. lewisi, Schizotrypanum cruzi, etc.).

2. There is no sharp difference between the genera Crithidia and Herpetomonas. In Crithidia calliphorae forms may be observed without any trace of an undulating membrane (Diagram I, Fig. 1); in Herpetomonas calliphorae such an organellum may be sometimes present (Diagram IX, Fig. 4).

Still I think that it is not permissible to throw these two genera together, as, generally speaking, an undulating membrane is present in Crithidia and absent in Herpetomonas.

3. Herpetomonas is often biflagellate, even when no signs of cellular division are present and the flagellates multiply less actively than in monoflagellate stocks. Still I agree with Patton that this biflagellate condition is too inconstant to permit of its being recognized as of generic significance.

4. The structure of the blepharoplast of Herpetomonas is distinctly like that of a nucleus, with peripheral chromatin and one or more central granules. It is true that the behaviour of these granules during the division is not so regular as that of the karyosomes of real nuclei, nevertheless, I think that the aspect of the blepharoplast of H. calliphorae is a strong argument in favour of Schaudinn's, and also Minchin's, view that this organellum must be regarded as a specialized nucleus (kinetonucleus).

5. The flagellum of Crithidia calliphorae is constructed in the same way as that of Trypanosoma lewisi: a basal granule is present and the new flagellum is formed by the production of a new flagellar root by fission of the basal part of the old flagellum. In Herpetomonas calliphorae a basal granule (at the base of the flagellum) and a marginal granule (at the point where the flagellum reaches the surface of the cell and becomes free) are present. The part of the flagellum situated between these two granules is the rhizoplast. The marginal granule first divides; then follows the fission of the rhizoplast and basal granule; lastly, from the marginal granule a new flagellum grows out, so closely entangled with the old one that it often seems as if the production of the new flagellum occurs exclusively by fission.

6. The extranuclear chromatoid granules of H. calliphorae consist of volutin. They are numerous during the preflagellate stage and disappear gradually during the flagellate stage; in the post-flagellate stage they are few in number or altogether absent.

This behaviour suggests that volutin in H. calliphorae may act as a sort of nutritive reserve-substance. In degenerating individuals the volutin granules become extremely numerous, an abnormal condition observed also in Trypanosomata (“ volutinosis ”). Consequently volutin seems to play the double part of a nutritive substance, and product of degeneration; this, however, likewise holds for many other nutritive substances (fat, glycogen, etc.).

7. The blepharoplast of H.'calliphorae shows cyclical changes. During the formation of the post-flagellate stages the achromatic substance is lost and only the chromatic portion remains. The blepharoplast is smallest at this period. The preflagellate stages possess a larger blepharoplast, and this organellum reaches its maximum dimensions during the flagellate stage. I am not able to say whether or not these cyclical changes have any special importance; perhaps they have something to do with the regulation of the normal relation between nucleus and protoplasm.

8. H. calliphorae was observed by me only in the gut of the fly and does not seem to be transmitted hereditarily, as is the case in Crithidia melophagia (Swingle, 1909; Porter, 1910).

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1911 , pp. 108 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1911

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Berliner, (1909). Flagellatenstudien. Arch. f. Protistenk., xv. 297.Google Scholar
Borowsky, (1910). Untersuchungen über Actinosphaerium. eichhorni. Arch. f. Protistenk., xix. 255.Google Scholar
Calkins, (1909). Protozoölogy. Lea and Febiger, New York and Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Chatton, and Alilaire, (1908). Co-existence d'un Leptomonas et d'un Trypanosoma chez un muscide non vulnérant. C. R. Soc. Biol., lxiv. 1004.Google Scholar
Dobell, (1908). Notes on some parasitic protists. Quart. Journ. Mier. Sci., lii. 121.Google Scholar
Dobell, (1909). Chromidia and binuclearity hypothesis. Quart. Journ. Mier. Sci., liii. p. 279.Google Scholar
Dobell, (1909). On the so-called “sexual” method of spore-formation in disporic Bacteria. Quart. Journ. Mier. Sci., liii. 579.Google Scholar
Fantham, (1908). Spirochaeta balbianii and Spirochaeta anodontae etc. Quart. Journ. Mier. Sci., lii, p. 1.Google Scholar
Fantham, (1911). The life-history of Trypanosoma gambiense and T. rhodesiense etc. Proc. Roy. Soc., London, lxxxiii. 212.Google Scholar
Guilliermond, (1909). Observations sur la cytologie d'un bacille. C. R. Soc. Biol., lxvii. 102.Google Scholar
Hertwig, (1904). Ueber physiologische Degeneration bei Actinosphaerium eichhorni. Festschrift f. E. Haeckel, p. 303.Google Scholar
Hindle, (1910). Degeneration phenomena of Trypanosoma gambiense. Parasitology, iii. 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jollos, (1910). Bau und Vermehrung von Trypanoplasma helicis. Arch. f. Protistenk., xxi. 103.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, (1910). Herpetomonads from the alimentary tract of certain dung-flies. Parasitology, iii. 255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mencl, (1911). Nachträge zu den Kernstrukturen und Kernaequivalenten. Arch. f. Protistenk., xxi. 255.Google Scholar
Minchin, (1908). Investigations on the development of Trypanosomes in the Tsetse flies and other Diptera. Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., lii. 159.Google Scholar
Minchin, (1909). The structure of Trypanosoma lewisi in relation to microscopical technique. Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., liii. 755.Google Scholar
Nuttall, (1910). Degenerative appearances observed in Piroplasma canis and in Trypanosoma brucei following upon drug treatment. Parasitology, iii. 203.Google Scholar
Patton, (1908). Herpetomonas lygaei. Arch. f. Protistenk., xv. 131.Google Scholar
Patton, (1909). The life-cycle of a new species of Crithidia etc. Arch. f. Protistenk., xv. 333.Google Scholar
Patton, and Strickland, (1908). A critical review of the relation of blood-sucking invertebrates to the life-cycle of Trypanosomes of vertebrates. Parasitology, ii. 322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrin, (1906). Researches upon the life-history of Trypanosoma balbianii. Arch. f. Protistenk., vii. 232.Google Scholar
Porter, (1909). The life-history of Herpetomonas jaculum etc. Parasitology, ii. 367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, (1910). The structure and life-history of Crithidia melophagia. Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., lv. 189.Google Scholar
Prowazek, (1904). Die Entwicklung von Herpetomonas etc. Arb. a. d. Kaiserl. Gesundheitsamte, xx. 440.Google Scholar
Robertson, (1906). Notes on certain blood-inhabiting Protozoa. Proc. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, xvi. 232.Google Scholar
Rosenbusch, (1909). Eine neue Encystierung bei Crithidia muscae domesticae. Centralbl. f. Bakt., Abt. 1, Orig., liii. 387.Google Scholar
Ross, and Thomson, (1911). A case of sleeping sickness studied by precise enumerative methods. Further observations. Proc. Roy. Soc., lxxxiii. 187.Google Scholar
Roobaud, (1908). Sur un nouveau flagellé parasite de I'intestin des muscides au Congo français etc. C. R. Soc. Biol., lxiv. 1107.Google Scholar
Schaudinn, (1902). Bacillus bütschlii. Arch. f. Protistenk., i. 106.Google Scholar
Schaudinn, (1903). Bacillus sporonema. Arch. f. Protistenk., ii. 421.Google Scholar
Swellengrebel, (1907). Sur la cytologie comparée des Spirochètes et des Spirilles. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, xxi, 448, 562.Google Scholar
Swellengrebel, (1909). Untersuchungen über die Zytologie einiger Fadenbacterien. Arch. f. Hygiene, lxx. 380.Google Scholar
Swellengrebel, (1909). Zur Kenntnis des Baues und der Zellteilung von Trypanosoma gambiense und T. equinum. Tidschr. d. Nederl. Dierk. Vereeniging, xi. 80.Google Scholar
Swellengrebel, (1910). Normal and abnormal morphology of Trypanosoma lewisi in the blood of the rat. Parasitology, iii. 459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swellengrebel, and Strickland, (1910). The development of Trypanosoma lewisi outside the vertebrate host. Parasitology, iii. 360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swingle, (1909). A study on the life-history of a flagellate (Crithidia melophagia) etc. Journ. Infect. Dis., vi. 98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swingle, (1911). The transmission of Trypanosoma lewisi. Journ. Infect. Dis., viii. 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissmann (1882). Ueber die Dauer des Lebens. Jena, G. Fischer.Google Scholar
Werner, (1908). Ueber eine eingeisselige Flagellatenform im Darm der Stubeufliege. Arch. f. Protistenk, xiii. 19.Google Scholar
Woodcock, (1910). Studies on avian Haemoprotozoa. Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., lv. 641.Google Scholar