Fine structural study of the microgametogenesis of Eimeria auburnensis

The microgametogenesis of Eimeria auburnensis from experimentally infected calves killed 16 to 18 days after inoculation was investigated with the electron microscope. Early microgametocytes had nuclei with compact nucleoli and relatively few electron-dense masses. In this stage, deep invaginations from the surface evidently served for the intake of nutrients from the parasitophorous vacuole. In older stages, the nuclei had no compact nucleoli and had more elctrondense material. An intranuclear fiber apparatus was present in some nuclei, apparently in an early stage of division. Nuclear division appeared in electron micrographs to occur by a kind of fission, in which the intranuclear fiber apparatus may participate. Numerous fissures appeared in the interior of the microgametocyte and the nuclei were arranged in irregular rows in association with these. Centrioles, either single or double, were observed between the nuclei and the membrane lining the fissures. Such nuclei often had an intranuclear fiber apparatus; one of the osmiophilic poles of this apparatus protruded outward from the nucleus in the vicinity of the centriole. Directly over this pole, electron-dense material, probably representing the anlage of the perforatorium, occurred immediately beneath the surface membrane of the fissure. As many as 9 closely arranged micropores were observed in this membrane in some specimens. In the nearly mature microgamete, the basal bodies of the flagella lay at the anterior end; the mitochondrion, with numerous, regularly arranged tubules began slightly posterior to this. The strongly osmiophilic, condensed nucleus was a little farther posterior; this remained connected by a narrow stalk with the uncondensed portion of the nucleus in the residual cytoplasm until the microgametes were almost completely mature. Usually, 2 flagella were present. Rarely, 3 flagella were observed, and evidence of a rudimentary middle flagellum was found in a number of specimens.