Paramecium in a different light

[Wes]

I was able to enrich a pond sample for Paramecium and it seemed like a good subject to try a few different contrasting methods - DIC, phase contrast and polarization. In one of the polarized light shots I left the shutter open for a few seconds and the organisms left interesting marks on the sensor.

[Hobbyst46]

Very nice images. I find the polarized light image especially interesting. It looks like the Paramecium contains (or is covered externally by ? ) calcite crystals. Was it like this before the global level of CO2 in the atmosphere escalated ?

[apochronaut]

You mean it's great to the 8 billionth power grandmother, don't you?


Really like these images. It's always interesting to see the differences in various contrast techniques. Image 1 and 3 appear to be of the same creature, not 2, or perhaps #2 image has been flipped? Great to see what is showing up in the pol image by comparison to #1.

[Hobbyst46]

You mean it's great to the 8 billionth power grandmother, don't you?.

Point taken. I only meant from the start of the industrial revolution, around the year 1850. Since then, CO2 emissions have escalated, so it is only 61,868 days, assuming that the Paramecium divides once per day (AFAIK).
But, I searched the literature for the combinations "ciliate"+"calcite", "ciliate"+"birefringence", "Paramecium"+ the above, and found practically nothing. So probably I got it all wrong. Microbiologists, help please.

[MichaelG.]

You mean it's great to the 8 billionth power grandmother, don't you?.

Point taken. ...

Am I permitted to be confused by that exchange ?
The first use of 'great' appears to be in apochronaut's post ... So what point was taken ?

MichaelG.

[75RR]

I think there is a serious risk of getting side tracked here. That is what new threads are for. New topic ... new thread!


Always nice to see different illumination techniques on the same subject.

Particularly like the Phase and the Pol. Nice work! Pic 4 looks like night-time traffic :)

[Wes]

Thank you all for the nice comments and apochronaut you are correct the DIC shot is of the same animal but taken much earlier than the other images so it looks a bit different.

Now regarding the crystals, these have been observed way before CO2 levels increased to present day levels. I could only find speculations as to what these might be with some experiments being done but didn't find anything conclusive and definitive. Here is an abstract from a 1938 paper that looks specifically into the problem.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE CRYSTALLINE INCLUSIONS OF PROTOZOA*

ALAN W. BERNHEIMER

The widespread occurrence of crystals and crystalline granules in the ciliated protozoa has led to their mention in the papers of a large number of investigators. Schewiakoff (1893) conducted an extensive study of the crystals of Paramecium caudatum, and Wrzesniowski (1870), Entz (1879), Balbiani (1882) and Rhumbler (1888) made special investigations of the crystalline granules of other ciliates. More recent studies on the occurrence and forms of crystals in rhizopods have been made by Schaeffer (1916, 1918, 1926), Luce and Pohl (1935) and by Mast and Doyle (1935). The crystals in ciliates and rhizopods have been thought, by various writers, to consist of calcium oxalate, calcium carbonate, di- or tribasic cal- cium phosphate, calcium chlorophosphate, silica, sodium urate, uric acid, leucin, and a magnesium salt of a substituted glycine.

Bernheimer, A. W. (1938). A Comparative Study of the Crystalline Inclusions of Protozoa. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 57(4), 336. doi:10.2307/3222488

In a book entitled "The Biology of Paramecium" it is stated that the crystalline inclusions disappear upon starvation and reappear when food is plentiful. Therefore one could imagine they serve a storage function.

Yesterday I also found Didinium in my Paramecium culture. Interesting to see how the culture would evolve now.

[Hobbyst46]

Thanks, Wes, for the clarification. Seemingly, there are not many modern (1950-present yr) articles about crystals in Paramecium.

[MichaelG.]

I think there is a serious risk of getting side tracked here. That is what new threads are for. New topic ... new thread!

Was that comment directed at me

If so, could you please explain ... I am genuinely bewildered.
MichaelG.

[MichaelG.]

Bernheimer, A. W. (1938). A Comparative Study of the Crystalline Inclusions of Protozoa. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 57(4), 336. doi:10.2307/3222488

Thanks for the reference, Wes
I located it here:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3222488?se ... b_contents

MichaelG.

[75RR]

I think there is a serious risk of getting side tracked here. That is what new threads are for. New topic ... new thread!

Was that comment directed at me :?:

If so, could you please explain ... I am genuinely bewildered.
MichaelG.

Not directed at you, though your post inquiring as to what the topic had now become did highlight the fact that it had deviated somewhat from the original post's subject.

We are all guilty of this to some degree. In my opinion there are a couple of problems with this.

One is that the OPs post is sometimes therefore not answered fully.

The other is that the subsequent discussion is not referenced correctly when doing a search, as the original post and the thread it forms part of has little or nothing to do with the direction the discourse has taken.

In other words, interesting posts are lost to other/future members.

Think books in a library placed in the wrong shelf.

[MichaelG.]

Not directed at you, though your post inquiring as to what the topic had now become did highlight the fact that it had deviated somewhat from the original post's subject.

Thanks for the clarification

MichaelG.

[Wes]

Bernheimer, A. W. (1938). A Comparative Study of the Crystalline Inclusions of Protozoa. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 57(4), 336. doi:10.2307/3222488

Thanks for the reference, Wes
I located it here:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3222488?se ... b_contents

MichaelG.

You're welcome. In case its behind a paywall you can sci-hub the DOI (you can message me for details in case you want to access this or any other paper for that matter).

I think there is a serious risk of getting side tracked here. That is what new threads are for. New topic ... new thread!

Was that comment directed at me

If so, could you please explain ... I am genuinely bewildered.
MichaelG.

Not directed at you, though your post inquiring as to what the topic had now become did highlight the fact that it had deviated somewhat from the original post's subject.

We are all guilty of this to some degree. In my opinion there are a couple of problems with this.

One is that the OPs post is sometimes therefore not answered fully.

The other is that the subsequent discussion is not referenced correctly when doing a search, as the original post and the thread it forms part of has little or nothing to do with the direction the discourse has taken.

In other words, interesting posts are lost to other/future members.

Think books in a library placed in the wrong shelf.

As the creator of this particular thread I don't mind at all. In fact some great discussions are born out of thread derailing, hijacking and generally going off-topic.

[MichaelG.]

You're welcome. In case its behind a paywall you can sci-hub the DOI (you can message me for details in case you want to access this or any other paper for that matter).

Thanks again, Wes
I have access via University of Manchester, but I think the link I posted is readable [not downloadable] for free anyway.
... Will bear your kind offer in mind though, for when I can't access something !

MichaelG.

[RobBerdan]

Re intracellular crystas in Paramecium - nice pictures. I have also photographed them and made movies of their birefringence under polarized light. I was trying to find out more about them and found a link to this discussion. I had read some of the references already mentioned and also that the crystals tend to disappear when food is short - though I have not observed this myself.

There is a more recent paper that isolated and chemically analyzed crystals in Paramecium - I have only read the abstract because they charge for the PDF (something I think is wrong as
we fund the research through our taxes and the researchers receive no payment from the published papers - some of the papers are available on research gate to members).

Here is the link to the abastract: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs ... .tb05679.x
Title: The Occurrence of Biogenic Calcian Struvite, (Mg, Ca)NH4PO4.6H2O, as Intracellular Crystals in Paramecium
JOHN E. GROVER ALAN F. ROPE EDNA S. KANESHIRO First published:01 May 2007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1550-7408.1997.tb05679.x

When observing the crystals in live animals they twinkle like Christmas lights in the dark as the animal moves. I have seen similar crystals in other protozoa. I will post a movie, pictures and an article on my web site in the future when I have learned more about the crystals in Paramecium and other protozoa. They are beautiful in plarized light.

RB

[biptunia]

These are stellar and lovely!

[Wes]

Re intracellular crystas in Paramecium - nice pictures. I have also photographed them and made movies of their birefringence under polarized light. I was trying to find out more about them and found a link to this discussion. I had read some of the references already mentioned and also that the crystals tend to disappear when food is short - though I have not observed this myself.

There is a more recent paper that isolated and chemically analyzed crystals in Paramecium - I have only read the abstract because they charge for the PDF (something I think is wrong as
we fund the research through our taxes and the researchers receive no payment from the published papers - some of the papers are available on research gate to members).

Here is the link to the abastract: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs ... .tb05679.x
Title: The Occurrence of Biogenic Calcian Struvite, (Mg, Ca)NH4PO4.6H2O, as Intracellular Crystals in Paramecium
JOHN E. GROVER ALAN F. ROPE EDNA S. KANESHIRO First published:01 May 2007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1550-7408.1997.tb05679.x

When observing the crystals in live animals they twinkle like Christmas lights in the dark as the animal moves. I have seen similar crystals in other protozoa. I will post a movie, pictures and an article on my web site in the future when I have learned more about the crystals in Paramecium and other protozoa. They are beautiful in plarized light.

RB

Awesome, thanks a lot for sharing!

These are stellar and lovely!

Thank you biptunia