The crystals which form in hemipteran insect ovaries which have been treated with vinblastine sulphate (VBL) invariably have the same orientation as the microtubules which they replace. This suggests that the microtubules may be involved in the assembly of the crystals. Colchicine was employed as a tool to dissemble the microtubules prior to treatment with VBL, in order to investigate their role in the assembly of the crystals, and also to examine cytologically the reports that colchicine and VBL bind to different sites on the microtubule protein. The observations show that a large proportion of intact microtubules is essential for crystal formation, and this has been interpreted as indicating that the microtubules act as a skeleton or former on which the crystals assemble.
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