• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.165-176
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• 1988

Stmcturai changes at the surfaces of oocytes of Pseudopotamilla occelata were examined by electron microscopy. The oocytes, which grow up to the flnai stage in the same coelomic fluid, once released from the ovary at 5 $\mu$ m stage, change in the structure of the vitelilne envelopes. Microvilli were found to change gready in structure, abundance and behaviour dudng oogenesis. Microvilli are short and bifurcated at the previtellogenic stages and grow in size, but the number increases only during previtellogenesis but decreases during vitellogenesis. Glycocaiyx structures begin to form at the tips of microvitli at the early previtellogenic stages and become more abundant as oocytes grow and remain at the final stage of oogenesis. The tips of microvilli are separated from the stems at the late vitellogenic stages to form vesicles simultaneously with retraction of the microvilli. Vitelline envelope consists of outer, intermediate and inner layers at the previtellogenic stages. However, the inner layer becomes thickened and differendated into two sublayers at 80 $\mu$m stage, - while the outer and intermediate layers remain constant in the thickness. These structural changes were presumably the results of functional differentiation of the vitelline envelope throughout oogenesis even in the same milleu.