Syncytium

A syncytium (plural: syncytia ), also Coenoblast or Coenocyt called a multinuclear ( polyenergide ) cell. So construed, a syncytium may arise either by fusion of several individual cells or by nuclear division without subsequent division of the cytoplasm, or by a series of incomplete cell divisions. As functional syncytia cells are referred to, are morphologically separated, their cytoplasm is associated with each other via gap junctions.

Syncytia in histology, restricting the definition

Major textbook definitions called syncytia only those polyenergide cells or cell complexes which are formed by the merger ( this definition corresponds to the actual meaning of the term in which the syllable " Syn" the fusion process, and thus the emergence of a characteristic type of tissue through the merger of cells, called ). To distinguish products of incomplete cell division are therefore sometimes referred to as Plasmodium (plural: plasmodia ) refers. In addition, for example, would delineate the many known forms of polynuclear protozoa ( protozoa ) as Polyenergide of syncytia ( a Energide (plural: Energiden ) denotes a nucleus and the surrounding plasma region of a syncytium ).

Examples

Syncytia include, for example:

• The fibers of the striated skeletal muscle, where a muscle of several muscle fibers ( syncytia ) exists. They are formed by the fusion of muscle -forming cells ( myoblasts ).
• The early stages of superficial cleavage in insect eggs are called depending on the definition as a syncytium or as polyenergid because they do not arise from the merger.
• The endosperm of the coconut, also popularly known as coconut milk.
• The phloem of the vascular tissue of plants sprout.
• Many fungi.
• The plasmodia of the slime molds.
• The green alga Caulerpa, here is all the algae from a cell.
• The neodermis of tapeworms ( Cestoda ), roundworms ( Nematoda ) and flukes ( Trematoda ).

Syncytia in evolutionary models

Occasionally, the particular organization of ciliates ( ciliata ) is discussed as a further developed syncytium. Here, then, hypotheses and models for evolutionary processes play a role, sometimes even extended to the evolution of all the Metazoa. Such assumptions, occurred in the evolution of the Metazoa on very early syncytial tissue, but not by fusion of cells, but proceeding from a polyenergiden, unicellular precursor of multicellular life forms ( described in detail eg by Jovan Hadzi, Wolfgang Friedrich Gutmann ). As a live model for this is sometimes referred to the primitive metazoan Trichoplax adhaerens, but also on some sponge species.

Swell

• Cell Biology