About the Cover
Cover
Riftia pachyptila is a vestimentiferan tubeworm living at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. As Roberto Marotta, Giulio Melone, Monika Bright and Marco Ferraguti describe in their article on page 215 of this issue, it releases spermatozoa grouped in bundles resembling buds, having a calyx-like portion formed by the helical heads and a stalk-like portion formed by the tightly packed flagella.
The cover photo shows the characteristic bud-like sperm bundles of Riftia pachyptila, as observed with the confocal microscope. The condensed chromatin present only in the main portions of the long helicoid nuclei of the spermatozoa is stained blue with DAPI. The filamentous actin inside the basal portion of the flagella is stained red by TRITC-conjugated phalloidin. The α-tubulin of the flagellar axonemes is stained green by specific monoclonal antibodies conjugated with TRITC. Each sperm bundle is about 130 μm long.
Credits: Photo by Dr. Umberto Fascio, CIMA (Interdepartmental Center for Advanced Microscopy) Universita` degli Studi di Milano. Cover layout by Beth Liles, Marine Biological Laboratory.
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Copyright © 2006 by the Marine Biological Laboratory.
