Abstract
A NOTE by T. M. Yanagita and T. Wada1 suggesting, after C. H. Brown2, the possible keratin nature of coelenterate nematocysts has directed my attention to the subject. In 1952 I had observed the pronounced metachromatic colour produced by dilute thionin on large nematocysts from a siphonophore, Halistemma sp. It is known that the metachromatic colour of a dye, as taken up by a substance, is characteristic of an acidic mucopolysaccharide content, associated or not, with proteins to form mucoproteins3. The fact interested me, since I had studied such substances in the envelopes of pagurid and cephalopod spermatophores4.
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References
Yanagita, T. M., and Wada, T., Nature, 173, 171 (1954).
Brown, C. H., Nature, 166, 439 (1950).
Meyer, K., “Advances in Protein Chemistry”, 2, 249 (1945).
Hamon, M., “Recherches sur les spermatophores” (Thèse, Alger, 1942).
Boisseau, J. P., Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr., 77, 151 (1952).
Weill, R., Trav. Sta. Zool. Wimereux, X and XI, 1–701 (Thèse, Paris, 1934).
Lison, L., “Histochimie et Cytochimie animales” (Paris, 1953).
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HAMON, M. Cytochemical Research on Coelenterate Nematocysts. Nature 176, 357 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/176357a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/176357a0
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