A quantitative study of the position of the Golgi apparatus in the early developing chick eye.

A quantitative evaluation of the positional changes of the Golgi apparatus during the invagination of the lens placode and the presumptive neural retina of the chick embryo was carried out by silver impregnation. The Golgi apparatus is predominantly polarized in the apical process of the elongated interphasic cells; however, basal and lateral positions are also present. When the nuclei are located close to the luminal surface, basal and lateral positions increase significantly showing that a loss of Golgi apparatus polarization takes place, associated with the mitotic cycle. At the beginning of the invagination of lens and neural retina rudiments, a marked shift in orientation occurs between lateral and apical positions of the Golgi apparatus; this is associated with the nuclei located close to the luminal surface. The possible significance of these results is related to some processes concerning the invagination of these rudiments, such as interkinetic nuclear migration and secretion of extracellular materials.