Abstract
WHILE studying the distribution of acetylcholine and other esterases in the insect Rhodnius1, it was observed that every droplet of triglyceride in the cells of the fat body has a small disk-like area or ‘cap’, 1µ or less in diameter, which is the site of an enzyme that will hydrolyse 5-bromoindoxyl acetate (method of Holt2) and naphthol AS acetate (method of Pearse3). This esterase is not inhibited by eserine or other inhibitors of the cholinesterase group; it was believed to be a lipase and it was concluded that the active disk or cap constitutes an organelle responsible for the liberation and perhaps the uptake of fatty acids in the droplets of stored lipid1.
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References
Wigglesworth, V. B., Quart. J. Micros. Sci., 99, 441 (1958).
Holt, S. J., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 142, 160 (1954).
Pearse, A. G. E., Intern. Rev. Cytol., 3, 329 (1954).
Chino, H., and Gilbert, L. I., Science, 143, 359 (1964).
Chino, H., and Gilbert, L. I., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 98, 94 (1965).
Pearse, A. G. E., Histochemistry (London, Churchill, 1960).
Wigglesworth, V. B., Quart. J. Micros. Sci., 97, 465 (1956).
Wigglesworth, V. B., J. Exp. Biol., 19, 56 (1942).
Chino, H., Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 102, 400 (1963).
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WIGGLESWORTH, V. ‘Catalysomes’, or Enzyme Caps on Lipid Droplets: an Intracellular Organelle. Nature 210, 759 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/210759a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/210759a0
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