The ultrastructures of binucleated follicle cells and migrated nuclei in the lizard Acanthodactylus scutellatus hardyi.

Abstract

Binucleated cells and constricted nuclei have been observed in the polymorphic follicles during certain developing stages in both the intermediate and the pyriform cells. The formation of binucleated follicle cells may increase RNA synthesis and/or another function may be assumed which is the migration of these nuclei to the ooplasm. The migrated nuclei have been seen during certain stages in the ooplasm and are apparently taken into the ooplasms by phagocytosis, or through cytoplasmic bridges, but there is a great possibility that these nuclei enter the oocyte by the fusion of both cell membranes (the oocyte and the follicle cell cytoplasmic membrane). The number of these nuclei is not very large and often too small in each oocyte to permit a true nutritive function but it does enable DNA and RNA material to enter the ooplasm.