Vorticella campanula corr.: It is Pseudovorticella monilata

[ralfwagner]

Hello,

recently Ken managed to show the nucleus of a Vorticella '8)'.
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=1612

This is what I tried to do with this Vorticella campanula, too. Unfortunately it didn't show the nucleus , but nevertheless I think the picture is it worth to be shown here.



Brightfield with oblique illumination. Exposure time was 1/500 s, thus the movement of the cilia is frozen to some degree.

[Ken Ramos]

Indeed it is a good image there Ralf and merits being shown . The nucleus of the Vorticella can be quite elusive at times and even more so when you want to take images of it. Sometimes it will be obscured by the endocytic vesicles about the lorica.

[ralfwagner]

Hello,

I have just learned from a posting by Martin Kreutz in the German forum that it is not Vorticella campanula but Pseudovorticella monilata.
http://www.mikroskopie-forum.de/read.ph ... #msg-27578
Sorry.

[Ken Ramos]

Hmm...interesting Ralf. So what we have here is a protozoan that looks like a vorticella but acutally it is not? If so, I never knew there was such an organism, at least until now. Thanks Ralf

[ralfwagner]

Hello Ken,

you can trust me, Pseudovorticella really exists! Martin Kreutz is one of our gurus for such questions. And, a short google of "pseudovorticella" will show you more.

[Ken Ramos]

Ah, so I see that this is a marine specimen, interesting. I noticed in the abstract that they too referred to what was once called a myoneme, as to being a spasmoneme. That latter term puzzles me as to why they chose that particular terminology, spasmoneme. I wonder now, would that apply to all protozoans that have organelles that are called myonemes, such as say...Spirostomum or even Lacrymaria, both have numerous myonemes?

[Charles Krebs]

Ralf... I learned something here...thanks!

And, a short google of "pseudovorticella" will show you more.

Here are two good links:
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... geid=21349
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... geid=17161

If you go to the "alphabetical listing" page (a great resource) and go to "pseudo..." you'll find quite a few entries. Looks like there may be many other tricky ID's out there!:
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... azorganism

[ralfwagner]

Ah, so I see that this is a marine specimen, interesting. I noticed in the abstract that they too referred to what was once called a myoneme, as to being a spasmoneme. That latter term puzzles me as to why they chose that particular terminology, spasmoneme. I wonder now, would that apply to all protozoans that have organelles that are called myonemes, such as say...Spirostomum or even Lacrymaria, both have numerous myonemes?

Ken,

I have to apologize myself. The hint for googling a bit around, was to show you that the genus pseudovorticella exists. I should have explained this with a few words more to avoiod such a misunderstanding: your google-tour lead to a marine species that I do not know. The species I am showing here is P. monilata, a freshwater species.

The only thing I know about a myoneme is, that it is inside the stem of a Vorticella or, as we have learned, a Pseudovorticella, in case the stem is contractile. You can recognize it as the "muscle" of the stem. Sorry, but I do not know anything about a spasmoneme in ciliata. Maybe Bernhard or Charles do know more.

[ralfwagner]

Charles,

thanks for that links':D'.

Starcentral is new to me and I think it will take me several hours or even days to get through this wonderful pictures and lessons!

[bernhardinho]

Hi folks,

actually Ken said it already: the system consisting of bands of microfilaments that contract a whole cell (like in Stentor or Spirostomum) is referred to as myonemes. The bands of filaments in the stalk of Vorticillidae are a bit different, obviously in size but also chemically. There're made of a protein called spasmin. There're therefore referred to as spasmonems.


Bernhard

[Ken Ramos]

Bernhard said:

There're made of a protein called spasmin. There're therefore referred to as spasmonems.

So that clears up the origin, of the name of the organelle. Thanks Bernhard.

Ralf, sorry for the misunderstanding. Yes, Google did lead me to the marine species of the organism and it is my fault for not recognizing the species name was different from your post. I need to pay more attention instead of running off blindly on a search. Thanks for clearning things up there Ralf.