Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Selective Cleaning of Wild Caenorhabditis Nematodes to Enrich for Intestinal Microbiome Bacteria
Published on: August 13, 2021
Selective resorption in nutritive phagocytes of the sea urchin Anthocidaris crassispina
Arkadiy A Reunov1, Alexander V Kalachev, Olga V Yurchenko
1Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia. inmarbio@mail.primorye.ru
Abstract:
Phagocytic resorption during spermatogenesis was studied in the sea urchin Anthocidaris crassispina. Nutritive phagocytes in gonad absorbed both waste sperm cells and residual bodies discarded from maturing spermatids, and these materials were subsequently compartmented in heterophagosomes. Based on 180 heterophagosomes examined by transmission electron microscopy, over 99% of heterophagosomes contained either residual bodies or sperm cells only. Simultaneous resorption of sperm cells and residual bodies in a heterophagosome was uncommon, with only approximately 0.56% occurrence, suggesting that heterophagosomes have a selective resorption ability in nutritive phagocytes.
Related Concept Videos
Phagocytosis
The objective of phagocytosis is often destruction. Cells use phagocytosis to eliminate unwelcome visitors, like pathogens (e.g., viruses and bacteria). Many immune system cells, including...
Phagocytosis
Renewal of Intestinal Stem Cells
Diversity of Protists I
Microbial Interactions: Predation
Diversity of Protists II

