Shape
Melanosomes are bound by a lipid membrane and are, in general, rounded, sausage-like, or cigar-like in shape. The shape is constant for a given species and cell type.
They have a characteristic ultrastructure on electron microscopy, which varies according to the maturity of the melanosome, and, for research purposes, a numeric staging system is sometimes used.
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Famous quotes containing the word shape:
“But virtue, as it never will be moved,
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Man’s own youth is the world’s youth; at least he feels as if it were, and imagines that the earth’s granite substance is something not yet hardened, and which he can mould into whatever shape he likes.”
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“Fortuitous circumstances constitute the moulds that shape the majority of human lives, and the hasty impress of an accident is too often regarded as the relentless decree of all ordaining fate.”
—Augusta Evans (1835–1909)