ARTICLE

STRATIFICATION AND SUBSEQUENT BEHAVIOR OF PLANT CELL ORGANELLES

G. Benjamin Bouck Ph.D.¹

¹ From the Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge.

Dr. Bouck's present address is Biology Department, Yale University, New Haven

Living excised roots of pea were centrifuged at 20,000 g for 24 hours, and the behavior of organelles was followed by electron microscopy at various intervals after centrifugation. With these forces, organelles are not perceptibly or irreversibly damaged, nor is the viability of the whole root destroyed. Organelles stratify generally in the order of lipid (centripetal pole), vacuoles, smooth endoplasmic reticulum and dictyosomes, proplastids (without starch), mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum, proplastids with starch. The nucleus distends from the vacuolar region to the extreme centrifugal pole of the cell, while the chromatin and nucleolus seek the centrifugal pole of the nucleus. During the redistribution of organelles the rough endoplasmic reticulum is among the first to reorient, and possible explanations for this are discussed. Mitochondria can be stretched elastically many times their original length, but proplastids seem fairly rigid. Small vacuoles, forced together during centrifugation, apparently may fuse to form a large unit. Lipid droplets, on the other hand, tend to remain separate. Dictyosomes and smooth endoplasmic reticulum layer in the same region of the centrifuged cell, indicating a density similarity between these two organelles.

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