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Acta Parasitologica, Vol.46, No. 2, 2001, 130-134
Miquel Jordi (1)*, Marchand Bernard (2) - Tubulin immunocytochemistry of the spermatozoa in the cestode Mesocestoides litteratus (Mesocestoididae)

(1) Laboratori de Parasitologia, Facultat de Farmacia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII s/n, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain; (2) Laboratoire Parasites et Ecosystemes Mediterraneens, Faculte des Sciences et Techniques, Universite de Corse, B.P. 52, F-20250 Corte, France
*Corresponding author: Fax: + 34-93-4024504, E-mail: jmiquel@farmacia.far.ub.es
ABSTRACT

The present paper constitutes the first immunocytochemical study of spermiogenesis and the spermatozoon of a cestode species (Mesocestoides litteratus). In a previous paper we have described the particular ultrastructure of spermiogenesis and the spermatozoon of M. litteratus. Spermiogenesis corresponds to a type II and spermatozoa exhibit parallel cortical microtubules. These surprising characters reveal no concordance between M. litteratus and Cyclophyllidea species in the processes of spermiogenesis and in the ultrastructural organization of the spermatozoon, and support further studies for the resolution of the systematic status of this group of "Cyclophyllidea". In the present work, an immunocytochemical study of localization of a-tubulin, b-tubulin, and acetylated-a-tubulin in sperm of M. litteratus was carried out.


KEY WORDS: Mesocestoides litteratus, Mesocestoididae, Cestoda, ultrastructure, spermiogenesis, spermatozoon, immunocytochemistry, tubulin
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