Can you dissect a Paramecium?

[DudeWithaMicroscope]

Hello,

I was wondering, is there some kind of tool allowing you to dissect such smal creatures?
I don't know, som thing with knobs that when turned move a blade per 1 micrometer increments.

Thanks.

[JimT]

Curious what you would expect to see that you can't see anyway?

[apochronaut]

I've had them explode. The cytoplasm is very amorphous and the organelles don't seem to hold there integrity for very long. It seems there must be a very organized electronic system on board that keeps the ship afloat.

[Oliver]

The tool with the knobs is called a micromanipulator. It is used to remove the nucelus of cells and can be used to inject sperm cells into egg cells when doing In-Vitro fertilization (ivf).

Dissecting a Paramecium does not result in more information. The contents is fluid and therefore any disturbance of the cell membrane will result in the contents spilling out. The purpose of dissecting is to make structures visible that were not visible before. In the case of Paramecium, a dissection will destroy these structures, and many structures are visible anyway under the microscope.

You can do a freeze-fracture analysis. The cell is frozen (which fixes the structures in place) and then broken apart. The different parts can then be analyzed with an electron microscope. The closest to a dissection that I can think of...... This is how the structure of the cell membrane was discovered.

Oliver

[charlie g]

Actually...Oliver 'nailed it'...paramecia are first fixed...then embedded...then 'ultra-microtome sectioned 'all the time. As well as freeze and fractured techniques as Oliver mentioned. Charlie guevara