Correlation of cyclic GMP and cyclic AMP immunofluorescence with cytochemical patterns during dormancy release and development from gemmules in Spongilla lacustris L. (Porifera: Spongillidae).

The spongillid freshwater sponges asexually produce an encapsulated dormant stage, the gemmule. With release from dormancy, internal, yolk-laden, binucleate thesocytes differentiate into histoblasts or archeocytes. The histoblasts emerging first from the gemmule form the initial pinacoderm of the hatching sponge.