New Developments in the Golgi Controversy

SYNOPSIS The author accepts, after long hesitation, the view that the “Golgi apparatus” in the neurones of vertebrates corresponds with the organelle of the same name in other cells. He has been much influenced by the results of the application of A. B. Novikoff's histochemical test for thiamine diphosphatase to various cells. This test gives a positive reaction in the Golgi apparatus in many cells of vertebrates, and in the neurones of this group of animals the lamellæ of the apparatus are the only site of positive reaction. When Novikoff's test is applied to the neurones of certain invertebrates, however, the lipochondria react positively, the Golgi apparatus feebly or not at all. The author stresses that the remarkable morphological similarity of the Golgi apparatus, as represented in electron micrographs of diverse cells, may disguise very considerable chemical and enzymic differences.