Author: Zhang Wei-chen, Yan Wen-mei and Lou Chen-hou
J Integr Plant Biol 1983, 25 (1): -.
Systematic investigations, mainly based on electron microscopy, have been conducted on constitutional changes in the laticifer and its adjoining parenchyma during the development of laticiferous system in garlic scape. The laticiferous system of the scape consists of several layers of articulated unbranched latieifers. About half of them are situated 2–3 cell layers below the epidermis, and the rest scattered throughout the cortex (Fig. 23). Latieifer differentiation starts with a thinning out and vacuolation of the dense protoplasm in the latieifer initials (Fig.2), which is followed by gradual degeneration of nuclei, plastids, endoplasmic reticulum, and dictyosomes; and by a sharp diminution of free ribosomes (Figs.3, 4). Remanent and defective forms of some organelles can still be found in the laticifer at the later stage. In spite of these drawbacks, the differentiating laticifer appears to function actively. Its protoplasm is delimited by a distinct plasmalemma (Figs. 3, 4). Its wall is interspersed with pits inclose spacings, to which most plasmodesmata are confined (Figs. 8, 24). The cell interior is packed with vesicles and mitoehondria (Figs. 4, 11, 15). Structurally, the laticifer seems well adapted to material exchange with the adjoining parenchyma. During the sprouting stage of the scape, the laticifer initials enlarge itself or fuse with each other by lateral wall dissolution to extend the diameter; at the same time, the laticifer elongates at an increasingly rapid rate. As a final result, the laticifer can attain 30–50 times the length and 2–3 times. the diameter of the adjoining parenchyma. The electron-dense material which protrudes into the laticifer initial from the parenchyma may be of lysosomal nature and probably concerned with wall dissolution and intracellular lytic processes in latieifer formation (Figs. 5, 7, 10). An excised garlic scape is employed in the observation of mature laticifers, which is always full of sap and is quite turgid. Once the scape is cut open, sap exudes almost exclusively from the cut end of the laticifers at the periphery, which lasts only some seconds. However, if the scape is left aside for a few days, exudation will again take place at the fresh cut end. Unlike the milky juice of many latex plants, the sap exuded from the garlic scape is watery and slightly turbid. The organic solute content is mainly made up of simple sugar and amino acids. It also contains a small amount of proteins and even protoplasmic fragments. Besides, it is worthy to note that decrease in organic solutes in the exudation is closely connected with the degree of exhaustion of cell contents from the withering scape, which is, as has already been shownm the sole agent of supplying materials required for the formation of apical cloves. All the above facts seem to indicate that there exists a loading and unloading process in the latieifer. Our electron micrographs (Figs. 16, 22) give evidence that vesicular transport through plasmodesmata in the pit field is capable of performing such a process: from the parenchyma to the laticifer in loading and from the latter to the former in unloading. The possible role of the laticifers in garlie scape could be a temporary storage of cell contents released successively from the deteriorating parenchyma. The sap content in the laticifer is in full turgidity as a result of loading, and can be readily drawn by unloading if so required. Transcellular cytosis is a term tentatively given by us to designate intercellular transport of sap, solutes, and macromolecular particles in small vesicles, which are formed and packed in one celt, traverse through plasmodesmata and merge into the other; whereas endo and exoeytosis refer to vesicular transport in a single cell only and to its moving in and out of the cell primarily through the plasma membrane, which also takes active part in the formation and dissolution of the vesicle and in the enclosure and release of its content. Transcellular cytosis was first observed by us in the withering parenchyma of an excised garlic scape; and, in the present case, between the latieifer and parenehyma, both being active functionally. As compared with the early notion that intercellular material transport is primarily carried out by secretion and reabsorption of highly degraded products through plasmalemma, transcellular eytosis appears to be a far more efficient means of translocating prefabricated assortment and well packed cargo from one cell into the other.