No recent work has examined this question, and it remains unclear how these chambers and the choanocytes that line them function in filter feeding.
Pieces of fractured choanocyte chambers were surveyed for interactions between particles and choanocytes.
Each chamber is carpeted by a single layer of cuboidal cells called choanocytes (Fig.
In our feeding experiments we took great care to reduce excess handling and processing time, but we still found that the morphology of collars was inconsistent, even among neighboring choanocytes in the same chamber.
Choanocytes derive from the cells of an inner cell mass.
Choanocytes are flattened, but their central part projects into a gastral cavity.
Figure 19 shows that the basal body of choanocytes lacks rootlets and a foot.
In this report, we show that larval flagellated cells transform into choanocytes during metamorphosis.
Minute ellipsoid granules in amoeboid cells and choanocytes
The choanocytes usually contain a moderate number of phagosomes.
As in the present study, the development of sperm from archeocytes has been documented among other sponges as well, although spermatozoids are generally thought to develop from choanocytes (Reiswig, 1983).
Therefore, a study of the choanocyte chambers was also carded out.
