Ultra-high voltage electron microscopy of primitive algae illuminates 3D ultrastructures of the first photosynthetic eukaryote.

ABSTRACT: A heterotrophic organism 1-2 billion years ago enslaved a cyanobacterium to become the first photosynthetic eukaryote, and has diverged globally. The primary phototrophs, glaucophytes, are thought to retain ancestral features of the first photosynthetic eukaryote, but examining the protoplast ultrastructure has previously been problematic in the coccoid glaucophyte Glaucocystis due to its thick cell wall. Here, we examined the three-dimensional (3D) ultrastructure in two divergent species of Glaucocystis using ultra-high voltage electron microscopy. Three-dimensional modelling of Glaucocystis cells using electron tomography clearly showed that numerous, leaflet-like flattened vesicles are distributed throughout the protoplast periphery just underneath a single-layered plasma membrane. This

SUBMITTER: Takahashi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4593968 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature