DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN TRICHINELLA-SPIRALIS AND TRICHINELLA-PSEUDOSPIRALIS IN MORPHOLOGY OF STICHOCYTE GRANULES, PEPTIDE MAPSOF EXCRETORY AND SECRETORY (E-S) PRODUCTS AND MESSENGER-RNA OF STICHOSOMAL GLYCOPROTEINS

The ultrastructure of muscle larvae of Trichinella pseudospiralis was studied by electron microscopy. The overall structure of muscle larvae of T. pseudospiralis resembled that of T. spiralis except for the sti chocyte granules. T. pseudospiralis had at least 3 kinds of stichocyte granules distinguishable from each other by their shape, size and inc lusions. The granules had some resemblance to alpha granules or beta g ranules of T. spiralis, but no resemblance to gamma granules. In favou r of these morphological differences and similarities among T. spirali s and T. pseudospiralis, excretory and secretory (E-S) products (origi nating from stichocyte granules) of the 2 species differed to some deg ree. In an analysis by 2-dimensional electrophoresis, some peptide spo ts migrating at 45 kDa were shared by the 2 species but the other spot s were unique to each of the 2 species. Messenger RNA encoding the 43 kDa glycoprotein of stichocyte granules was detected in the muscle lar vae of both species but mRNA encoding the 53 kDa glycoprotein was dete cted only in muscle larvae of T. spiralis.