Flagellates living inside chili plant root cells

[macnmotion]

If you watch this full screen in 1080 HD, you'll be able to see tiny (<10 micron) flagellates swimming inside individual cells of hydronic chili plant roots. Will these organisms spend their entire lives inside one plant cell?

https://youtu.be/Us9wSNP4Yw4

[DonSchaeffer]

Interesting!

[Wes]

Nice finding. I guess the cells are dead and the flagellates got trapped inside and now have a hard time finding their way out.

[macnmotion]

Nice finding. I guess the cells are dead and the flagellates got trapped inside and now have a hard time finding their way out.

So if the cells were still alive, the organisms could find a way out? What would the difference be? Thanks.

[Wes]

Nice finding. I guess the cells are dead and the flagellates got trapped inside and now have a hard time finding their way out.

So if the cells were still alive, the organisms could find a way out? What would the difference be? Thanks.

I think what happened is that a root cell got damaged and lost its integrity and in the process of dying it was leaking nutrients and likely chemoattractants for the flagellates. The flagellates followed the gradient of chemoattractants, managed to get in through the small break in the cell wall but now have no clear guidance of how to get out. There are fruit fly traps that work in a similar way, you have a jar with yeast/vinegar and a small opening, so the flies can follow the chemical gradient and get in but then can't find the small opening on their way out.

I am of course speculating wildly here, but I'm not aware of examples where live cells would host a big load of flagellates. Oh and btw your video is really nice, what kind of objective, microscope and camera setup did you use here?

[macnmotion]

Nice finding. I guess the cells are dead and the flagellates got trapped inside and now have a hard time finding their way out.

So if the cells were still alive, the organisms could find a way out? What would the difference be? Thanks.

I think what happened is that a root cell got damaged and lost its integrity and in the process of dying it was leaking nutrients and likely chemoattractants for the flagellates. The flagellates followed the gradient of chemoattractants, managed to get in through the small break in the cell wall but now have no clear guidance of how to get out. There are fruit fly traps that work in a similar way, you have a jar with yeast/vinegar and a small opening, so the flies can follow the chemical gradient and get in but then can't find the small opening on their way out.

I am of course speculating wildly here, but I'm not aware of examples where live cells would host a big load of flagellates. Oh and btw your video is really nice, what kind of objective, microscope and camera setup did you use here?

You're probably correct. The chili plant roots in question are from a plant that I've retired, but had not yet emptied out its container. So the roots are in water with nutrients, and since I cut down most of the plant the water hasn't been used up so the roots have been kept wet. The roots are probably a combination of alive/dying -- there is green still in the root system in places. I've since cleaned the container out, but I kept a sample of the root system in its water so I can go back to it, at least for a little while.

This was taken with a Nikon inverted diaphot (circa 1985) and 50W halogen bulb at around 90% voltage, using a 40x oil objective, and a Nikon D750 DSLR with the 1.5x sensor crop setting turned on. That crop factor gives me a FOV of 240 x 135 microns (without the sensor crop setting, the FOV is 360 x 200 microns). Shot at around 1/1600 second and ISO 1600 (I modify these settings on the fly from time to time depending on the subject) to reduce image blur on each frame.

[SuiGenerisBrewing]

I disagree with the above idea that these are flagellates that have become trapped in roots. There are a number of plant diseases which are caused by flagellated protozoans, and some of these are invasive (e.g. the protozoan enters and lives inside of the plant cells or within structures such as the xylem/phloem). This is a poorly researched area, so we don't know much about these protozoa, but it is a very real and somewhat common phenomenon.

If you're interested, here's a link to a somewhat dated review on the topic.

Bryan

[Wes]

I disagree with the above idea that these are flagellates that have become trapped in roots. There are a number of plant diseases which are caused by flagellated protozoans, and some of these are invasive (e.g. the protozoan enters and lives inside of the plant cells or within structures such as the xylem/phloem). This is a poorly researched area, so we don't know much about these protozoa, but it is a very real and somewhat common phenomenon.

If you're interested, here's a link to a somewhat dated review on the topic.

Bryan

Thats very interesting, thank you for posting! You learn something new everyday