General morphology and ultrastructure of the radula of Testudinalia testudinalis (O. F. Müller, 1776) (Patellogastropoda, Gastropoda)

The radular morphology of the patellid species Testudinalia testudinalis (O. F. Müller, 1776) from the White Sea was studied using light, electron, and confocal microscopy. The radula is of the docoglossan type with four teeth per row and consisting of six zones. We characterize teeth formation in T. testidinalis as follows: one tooth is formed by numerous and extremely narrow odontoblasts through apocrine secretion; this initially formed tooth consists of numerous vesicles; the synthetic apparatus of the odontoblasts is localized in the apical and central parts of the cells throughout the cytoplasm and is penetrated by microtubules which are involved in the transport of the synthesized products to the apical part of the odontoblast; the newly formed teeth consist of unpolymerized chitin. Mitotic activity is located in the lateral parts of the formation zone. The first four rows contain an irregular arrangement of teeth, but the radular teeth are regularly arranged after the fifth row. The irregularly arranged teeth early on could be a consequence of the asynchronous formation of teeth and the distance between the odontoblasts and the membranoblasts. The morphological data obtained significantly expands our knowledge of the morphological diversity of the radula formation in Gastropoda.