Some Special Topics and Some Loose Ends

Abstract

Structures that can reasonably thought of as lysosomes have been identified in many different types of plants ranging from yeast and fungi to various higher plants (for reviews see Matile 1969, 1974 and Gahan 1967, 1973, Wilson 1973). The criteria for their identification are substantially the same as those used for animal cells—the presence of characteristic acid hydrolases within membrane-delimited bodies. The hydrolases have been found with biochemical procedures (e.g.,Hoffmann 1971, Matile 1974, Pitt and Gilpin 1973) as well as with cytochemical methods for demonstration of several enzymes (e.g., Berjack 1968, Coulomb 1971, Gahan 1973, Pitt 1968, Reiss 1974, Wilson 1970). Pitt and Coombs (1968) have also successfully employed several of the vital stains found to accumulate in animal cell lysosomes (e.g., neutral red, euchrysin).