[leish-l] Division of promastigotes

K.P. Chang changk at mail.finchcms.edu
Sat Mar 27 14:41:28 BRT 2004


Bob described cell division of Leishmania promastigotes in vivid detail
and accuracy. In the case of L donovani and L amazonensis amastigotes, I
noted the formation of divison furrows from both anterior and posterior
ends. However, the former seems to be formed faster than the latter. I
don't know if this is true all the time for all species. Nor can I
attach any particular significance to it.

KP



killickendrick wrote:

> Patrick Bastien asks for information on the sequence of the division
> of organelles of leishmanial promastogotes. Observations on
> Giemsa-stained smears of L. infantum in the midgut of one of its
> natural vectors, P.ariasi, show that there appears to be a constant
> sequence of events. See page 407 in Killick-Kendrick (1979) In Biology
> of Kinetoplastida vol 2 and the account and figures on pp 126-7 in
> Molyneux & Killick-Kendrick (1987) in The Leishmaniases in Biology and
> Medicine, vol 1.The sequence is:promastogote increases in size and a
> second basal body appears;a daughter flagellum (which stays smaller
> than the original throughout the process) arises from this second
> basal body;kinetoplast enlarges and stains diffusely - but does not
> divide yet;nucleus enlarges and divides into two equal parts which
> usually lie side by side, but are sometimes in tandem;the kinetoplast,
> which by now lies across the body, assumes a dumbbell shape and then
> divides into two equal parts;the daughter kinetoplasts, lying just
> anterior to the nuclei, are small and stain densely with Giemsa's
> stain;the body of the promastigote divides into two equal parts by a
> cleft that arises between the two flagella and progressively continues
> posteriorly leaving one nucleus and one kinetoplast in each daughter
> individual.The two new promastigotes are about half the size of the
> original promastigote and morphologically identical except that the
> flagellum of one is shorter than that of the other.In cultures, the
> kinetoplast sometimes divides before the nucleus, but I have never
> seen this sequence in stained smears of any Leishmania species.
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