Heliozoans - Scanning Electron Microscope images

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 11:45 am

Heliozoans are the microbes that fascinated me most when I started with microscopy. Besides the well known larger heliozoans there are many very small species (10 µm diameter) that are nearly impossible to identify with a light microscope. Some of these small heliozoans reveal an amazing hidden beauty under the electron microscope.

These tiny heliozoans have axiopoda that get lost during preparation as well as siliceous scales. There are two typos of scales, tangential plate scales and radial scales. The tangential scales are usually much smaller.

Pterocystis pulchra, periplast with radial scales

Pterocystis pulchra, periplast with radial scales and tangential scales

Pterocystis pulchra, radial scales

Pterocystis striata, periplast with radial scales

Pterocystis striata, radial scales

Pseudoraphidiophrys formosa (=Pterocystis formosa), periplast with radial scales and tangential scales

Pseudoraphidiophrys formosa, radial scales and tangential scales

Pseudoraphidiophrys discoidea ( =Pterocystis discoidea), periplast with radial scales

Pseudoraphidiophrys discoidea, periplast with radial scales and tangential scales

Some of the radial scales remind me of flowers. It is quite astonishing how nature produces beauty even at the smallest scale.

These heliozoans used to belong to the genus Acanthocystis. Then they were moved to a distinct new genus Pterocystis (Ptero = wing, as theses scales show a wing-like profile in the light microscope). The species P. discoidea und P. formosa were subsequently moved further into the genus Pseudoraphidiophrys. Of course my identification is not 100% as we know very little about these heliozoans and there is very little published literature.

I wish you all a great 2014 with many interesting subjects under the microscope.

Best regards,
Ecki

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 11:49 am

great

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 11:54 am

Really impressive!!
Are those scales visibles (even barely) with light microscopy?

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 11:57 am

great, really impressive detail and atmosphere. Could you tell something about magnification used here?

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 12:30 pm

Thank you all!

Are those scales visibles (even barely) with light microscopy?

Here is a link to Ferrys website: http://www.arcella.nl/pterocystis-spec

These are dried species in phase contrast. I don't think that these scales are visible normally.

The detail images are approximately 100.000x magnification, depends on your screen size

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 12:45 pm

thanks (:

light microsopy can do nothing here...

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 12:55 pm

impressive and beautiful details hidden into Heliozoan wow..
Thanks for posting

Arturo

g4lab · Post by **g4lab** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:37 pm

Congratulations on having the new baby up and running!!!

flyer2o12 · Post by **flyer2o12** » Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:51 pm

Hi Litonotus,

Which SEM are you using?

Marek Mis · Post by **Marek Mis** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:03 am

Incredible images ! The structures look like leaves of some plant.

Marek

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:06 am

Thank you, Marek.

Here I have two light microscopic images my friend Steffen made. He took the sample from a swamp and sent me half of it. We both prepared petri dishes from which I made my SEM preparations. When I find something interesting, he looks for the same species with a light microscope.

Here you have two images of Pterocystis with DIC:

On the last image Synura is present, too. The images were made for reference in pretty thick samples.

Best regards
Ecki

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:16 am

I wonder how olympus 100/1,7 would perform... Or zeiss or olympus 150/1,35x objectives

leonardturner · Post by **leonardturner** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 4:17 pm

Beautiful execution with a difficult instrument. Thank you!

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:47 am

Please keep these coming. I love peeking deeper into the micro universe. If I had the money I'd get a SEM too and abscond from my day job.

Stefano B · Post by **Stefano B** » Mon Jan 06, 2014 2:44 am

Hi Ecki,

which SEM are you using? Can you post some pictures of this microscope?