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Vol 46(2012) N 2 p. 218-225; O.G. Leonova1, B.P. Karajan2, Y.F. Ivlev3, J.L. Ivanova1, V.I. Popenko1* Relative Position of Nucleolar Chromatin and Nucleolar Components in Ciliate Didinium nasutum Somatic Nuclei 1Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991 Russia2Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 194064 Russia 3Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119071 Russia *popenko@eimb.ru Received - 2011-04-21; Accepted - 2011-06-24 According to our computer modeling data obtained earlier, nucleoli in interphase ciliates Didinium nasutum are complex netlike structures, in which the trabeculum- or lamella-shaped fibrillar component is located on the periphery, and the granular component in the central part of the nucleolus. Chromatin bodies connected with nucleoli act as the nucleolar organizers in D. nasutum. In the present work, the arrangement of all chromatin bodies, which could correspond to nucleolar organizers by morphological criteria, is studied by means of a 3D-reconstruction. It is shown that all of these chromatin bodies are localized outside the nucleoli, on the fibrillar component's periphery. Even those chromatin bodies which appeared to be completely surrounded by the fibrillar nucleolar component on single ultrathin sections are actually settled down in nucleolus cavities open to the nucleoplasm. This proves that the RNA processing in D. nasutum nucleoli is directed toward the center of nucleoli, where the granular component is located. The analysis of the nucleolar chromatin distribution made it possible to conclude that different parts of the complex interfase netlike nucleoli of D. nasutum have approximately the same activity. 3D reconstruction, serial ultrathin sections, electron microscopy, nucleoli, ciliate, macronucleus |