Ultrastructural description of development and cell composition of primmorphs in the endemic Baikal sponge Lubomirskia baicalensis
Résumé
The morphological description of morphogen-esis accompanying primmorph formation from cell aggre-gates in the endemic Baikal sponge Lubomirskia baicalensis as well as the description of cell composition of these primmorphs was investigated. Development of small sponges from dissociated cells in L. baicalensis is a stepwise process that can be separated into three stages: 1—primary aggregates; 2—early-stage primmorphs; and 3—primmorphs or young sponges. Primary aggregates are irregular in shape and consist of loosely packed cells. Early-stage primmorph development is characterized by cell sorting, aggregate compactization, surface epitheliza-tion and cell differentiation. Primmorphs or young sponges have developed elements of the aquiferous system. The main morphogenesis occurring during primmorph devel-opment in L. baicalensis is the epithelization of the cell aggregate surface accompanied by the flattening of poorly connected spherical cells. The main sources of new exopinacoderm development during L. baicalensis prim-morph formation are choanocytes and amoebocytes that transdifferentiate into exopinacocytes. The cellular com-position of L. baicalensis primmorphs does not differ sig-nificantly when compared to intact sponges. The most abundant cells in both primmorphs and in intact sponges are amoebocytes and choanocytes. Our results provide a morphological basis for future investigations using prim-morphs of this species as models in biotechnology, evo-devo, cytology and molecular biology approaches.