Ref ID : 7678
Marie-Odile Soyer, Paul Prevot, Francoise de Billy, Tauno Jalanti, Francine Flach, and Alain Gautier; Prorocentrum micans E., One of the most Primitive Dinoflagellates: I. - The Complex Flagellar Apparatus as seen in Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy. Protistologica XVIII(3):289-298, 1982
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Using various techniques of preparing cell cultures for scanning and transmission electron microscopy, we have observed more precisely than before the external, intermediate and internal parts of the complex flagellar apparatus of the primitive dinoflagellate Prorocentrum micans E. In many cells this apparatus was made up of three flagella: two longitudinal, and an undulating one being equipped with a membrane anchored on the epitheca and with a free tip. The bases of the longitudinal flagella were nearly parallel to each other and were situated at the apical pole of the protozoan, while the anchor point of the undulating flagellum was nearly perpendicular to them. Our interpretative scheme for the undulating flagellum is compared with three other previously published models; it corroborates the semi-helical model of Leblond and Taylor (1976). The presence of three flagella in a dinoflagellate of the Prorocentridae family poses new problems in the taxonomy of the desmokontae.