The effect of light and light deprivation upon the ultrastructure of the larval mosquito eye. III. Multivesicular bodies and protein uptake

The formation of multivesicular and lamellar bodies, organelles characteristic of arthropod photoreceptor cells, is shown in the mosquito eye to be dependent upon light. The organelles are nearly absent from light deprived eyes; they form in large numbers when such eyes are first illuminated. Multivesicular bodies form adjacent to the rhabdomere, then move proximally into the body of the cell, ultimately being transformed into lamellar and probably dense bodies. Experiments in which ferritin was injected into the hemolymph of the head confirmed the hypothesis that the coated vesicles of the rhabdomere are pinocytotic vesicles. Ferritin taken into the cell by rhabdomeric vesicles is sequestered in multivesicular bodies.