Unidentified object(s)

[gekko]

I posted this pod-like cluster before (perhaps on the old froum) but no one identified it. It appears to be comprised of a large number of small flagellates (or ciliates, I'm not sure) that are sitting in a honeycomb structure and that ultimately leave the pod and swim about. I thought (perhaps wrongly) that it somewhat resembles the object(s) that apochronaut posted here ("Fresh water beach sample": viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1617).


(Please click on vimeo to see it full size)

[actinophrys]

Thanks for posting this again! It is a very neat find, shown in excellent detail, and I'm happy to say that with this second pass I could figure something out.

As Bill Porter had supposed this is from an oomycete or water mould, which have biflagellate spores. They are usually released from sporangia through a common aperture, but in Dictyuchus the spores encyst and then escape individually, and what pictures are available closely match yours (e.g. from PIS). Most species are saprobes though some are aquatic parasites.

[gekko]

Thank you very much, actinophrys, both for the link to my earlier post (which I was unable to find on my own ) and for the identification. I had completely forgotten about the discussion with Peter and Bill Porter, and that both Peter and Bill had identified it as water mold, but that the problem of the way that the spores were released remained to be explained. Now, thanks to you, that final problem has been solved. Thanks again. (I'm amazed and thankful that you still remember that old post and that you took the trouble to locate it!)

[charlie g]

Congrats to both the ID microscopist, and to gekko for capturing this biologic dispersal event! I consider that image capture quite a special 'life list' observation, gekko! thanks for posting the event, charlie guevara

[gekko]

Many thanks, charlie, for your very kind comment.

[einman]

Indeed a very nice video. Enjoyed viewing it full screen.
Do you recall what objective, stand etc you used?

[gekko]

Many thanks, einman, for your comment. My microscope is a Nikon Optiphot, the objectives used were 10x, 20x, and 40x. For imaging I used projection by CF PL2.5x (or perhaps PL2x-- I don't remember at what point I switched to 2x) onto the sensor of an Olympus E-P1 camera.

[apochronaut]

Thanks for re-posting that. I hadn't seen it before. That water mold does certainly have similarities to the sample I found, although there are also dissimilarities.
The size of the individual roundish structures are pretty consistent between the two and the relatively organized order of arrangement is somewhat similar.

My sample appears to have structures embedded in some sort of matrix , where as your sample doesn't seem to have that , although the honeycomb structure could be the residue of such.

Your spores are more or less mature, have reached a fairly consistent structural development and have also reached the free swimming stage and if the ones in my post are indeed also spores , it seems that they are not mature and are in the developmental stage. This might account for the dissimilar structural components.

The one thing that I wanted to see in this video was a clear image of the base of the sporangia....to see if it had a similar blunt paddle -like shape as the underlying structure of my sample has.

I found the method of locomotion on the spores fascinating; those multiple cilia or possibly flagella. Pretty high tech., for a spore.

[gekko]

Thanks for re-posting that. I hadn't seen it before. That water mold does certainly have similarities to the sample I found, although there are also dissimilarities.
The size of the individual roundish structures are pretty consistent between the two and the relatively organized order of arrangement is somewhat similar.

My sample appears to have structures embedded in some sort of matrix , where as your sample doesn't seem to have that , although the honeycomb structure could be the residue of such.

Your spores are more or less mature, have reached a fairly consistent structural development and have also reached the free swimming stage and if the ones in my post are indeed also spores , it seems that they are not mature and are in the developmental stage. This might account for the dissimilar structural components.

The one thing that I wanted to see in this video was a clear image of the base of the sporangia....to see if it had a similar blunt paddle -like shape as the underlying structure of my sample has.

I found the method of locomotion on the spores fascinating; those multiple cilia or possibly flagella. Pretty high tech., for a spore.

Many thanks for the interesting discussion. My original impression was that the motion was via flagella and actinophrys confirmed that. I will try to find the original images and see if I have a larger magnification image of the base (I think I have shown all I have, but maybe not). You can see the whole thing at the very beginning and at the very end of the video (10x objective). Is the "base" the top or bottom end? I may be able to crop and show it larger, but I don't know if that will help.