Division of the ciliate Chilodonella

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Fri May 26, 2017 10:32 am

Process of diviison of the ciliate Chilodonella

Video:

https://youtu.be/xTvSsTXRJ2o

Francisco

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri May 26, 2017 11:24 am

Very nice video, but I'm thinking this is the end of division, not conjugation.

As far as I know, ciliates do conjugation side-by-side, but this looks like head-to-tail as in division. Not correct?

--Rik

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Fri May 26, 2017 7:31 pm

rjlittlefield wrote:Very nice video, but I'm thinking this is the end of division, not conjugation.

As far as I know, ciliates do conjugation side-by-side, but this looks like head-to-tail as in division. Not correct?

--Rik

Yes, it's a division, not a conjugation.

Not all ciliate conjugation is "side-by-side," though. Organisms with mouths at the anterior pole will typically conjugate "head-to-head". However, I'm not aware of any ciliates that conjugate "head-to-tail."

Very nice video, in any case.

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Sat May 27, 2017 1:29 am

Thank you for your answers.
As, I think, the multiplication of Chilodonella is by conjugation, I deduce that the ciliate of the video is not Chilodonella.

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Sat May 27, 2017 5:17 am

Francisco, all ciliates, including Chilodonella, multiply by division (fission), an asexual process. Sexual conjugation is a separate process, during which two cells share genetic material. Once conjugation has occurred, division will always follow. However, division is not always preceded by conjugation.

We sometimes read about ciliates "reproducing sexually," but the terminology can be misleading. Increase in numbers always occurs by cell division. This may or may not be preceded by genetic recombination, which occurs during conjugation. Life cycles vary quite a bit from one ciliate group to the next, and there are many styles of division and conjugation, but the general pattern is always the same.

That said, there is not sufficient information in this video to say whether this is Chilodonella. It is surely a chlamydodontid of some kind, but we don't see details that would allow genus-level identification.

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Mon May 29, 2017 2:47 am

Very nice

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Mon May 29, 2017 7:12 am

Bruce, Jacek, thanks

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon May 29, 2017 8:17 am

Bruce, thanks for the info on conjugation!

--Rik