Vorticella --- myonem-bundle

[ralfwagner]

Hello,

sometimes Vorticella contracts its stem to a helix. This is done with the aid of the myonem-bundle inside the stem. In this phase-contrast picture you can the myonem-bundle inside the stem and even how it divides into two different lines when entering the cell-body:


Myonem-bundle of Vorticella spec.

The next pic shows at the example of Pseudovorticella monilata some stems contracted to a helix:



Enjoy!

[bernhardinho]

Hello,

sometimes Vorticella contracts its stem to a helix. This is done with the aid of the myonem-bundle inside the stem. In this phase-contrast picture you can the myonem-bundle inside the stem and even how it divides into two different lines when entering the cell-body:
!

Hi Ralf,

of course I know your beautiful pics already. I would like to make one short comment to your phrase above:
The myonem (or in Vorticella rather called spasmonem) doesn't actually "enter" the cell body and sort of split, but it is exactly the other way round: the stalk of the myonemes is in fact a secretion product of an area in the cell body called the scopula. This is what we see here, looking like two split myonemes, but it is really a whole system of fibrills.


Bernhard

[ralfwagner]

thanks for clearing things up, Bernhard.