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Description: English: Morphology of Pseudoblepharisma tenue (Heterotrichea: Blepharismidae) and its two photosynthetic endosymbionts. (A) A motile individual of P. tenue displaying a peristome (P) that occupies the first third of the cell, a posterior contractile vacuole (CV), and an elliptic macronucleus (MA) largely obscured by the photosynthetic endosymbionts. (B) Detail of P. tenue cytoplasm with purple bacteria (Ca. Thiodictyon intracellulare, B), green algae (Chlorella sp. K10; A), and food vacuoles (FV) with partially digested material. (C) Purple bacteria and green algae in a squashed ciliate. Note dividing bacteria (arrowheads). (D) Ciliate cytoplasm with small, elliptic algal cells likely originating from autospore formation. (E) Single elliptic macronucleus (MA) with peripheral micronuclei (arrowheads). (F) Peristome with adoral membranelles (AM) and opposing row of ciliated dikinetids (arrowhead). (G) Cortex of P. tenue with slightly helical rows of refractive, colorless granules (putative mucocysts). (H) Cyst-like cell of P. tenue with endosymbionts and two macronuclei (MA). Scale bars, 10 μm. Date: 11 June 2021. Source: Fig. 1 at
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/24/eabg4102 A microbial eukaryote with a unique combination of purple bacteria and green algae as endosymbionts. In: Science Advances Vol. 7, no. 24, eabg4102
doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg4102 . Author: Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez, Martin Kreutz, Sebastian Hess. Other versions:
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Pseudoblepharisma tenue Scale bar indicates 100 µm. Sample from the pond Hegne Moor situated in the vicinity of Lake Constance. The image was built up using several photomicrographic frames with manual stacking technique. Images were taken using Zeiss Universal with Olympus C7070 CCD camera.Image under Creative Commons License V 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA). Place name: Bog Hegne Moor near Lake Constance (Germany) Latitude: 47.718106 Longitude: 9.093974 Multiebenen-Abbildung, manuell gestapelt. Der Messbalken markiert eine Länge von 100 µm. Probe aus dem Simmelried nahe Konstanz. Mikrotechnik: Zeiss Universal, Kamera: Olympus C7070. Creative Commons License V 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA). For permission to use of (high-resolution) images please contact postmaster@protisten.de.
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Canencia, Madrid, Spain
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Mohedas de la Jara, Castilla-La Mancha, Espaa
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Villoslada de Cameros, La Rioja, Espaa
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Urbanizacin Los Pinarejos, Comunidad de Madrid, Espaa
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Canencia, Comunidad de Madrid, Espaa
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Blepharisma, pink heterotrich ciliate. From a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho.
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Infraciliature (dorsal side) of the medium-size pigmented heterotrich ciliate, Blepharisma lateritium (Ehrenberg,1831; Stein, 1859). The cell is teardrop-shaped and pale pink in color. The peristome extends about 2/3 the cell length along the left side. The peristome is bordered on the left by serial polykinetids forming an adoral zone of membranelles and on the right by a narrow undulating membrane which is less conspicuous. The longitudinal somatic kineties bend to the left margin on the dorsal surface (seen here). The single ellipsoid to spherical macronucleus is located left of midline in the cell center. There are multiple very small micronuclei which are difficult to discern in vivo. These become swollen and densely stained in silver impregnated specimens (seen here at edge of macronucleus). Stained by silver carbonate techniique (see Foissner, W.Europ. J. Protistol.27,313-330;1991). Collected from an artificial freshwater dredge pond near Boise, Idaho October 2004. Brightfield optics.
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Infraciliature (ventral side) of the medium-size pigmented heterotrich ciliate, Blepharisma lateritium (Ehrenberg,1831; Stein, 1859). The cell is teardrop-shaped and pale pink in color. The peristome extends about 2/3 the cell length along the left side. The peristome is bordered on the left by serial polykinetids forming an adoral zone of membranelles and on the right by a narrow undulating membrane which is less conspicuous. The longitudinal somatic kineties bend to the left margin on the dorsal surface. The single ellipsoid to spherical macronucleus is located left of midline in the cell center. There are multiple very small micronuclei which are difficult to discern in vivo. These become swollen and densely stained in silver impregnated specimens (seen here). Stained by silver carbonate techniique (see Foissner, W.Europ. J. Protistol.27,313-330;1991). Collected from an artificial freshwater dredge pond near Boise, Idaho October 2004. Brightfield optics.
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Portrait of the medium-size pigmented heterotrich ciliate, Blepharisma lateritium (Ehrenberg,1831; Stein, 1859). The cell is teardrop-shaped and pale pink in color. The peristome extends about 2/3 the cell length along the left side. The peristome is bordered on the left by serial polykinetids forming an adoral zone of membranelles and on the right by a narrow undulating membrane which is less conspicuous. The longitudinal somatic kineties bend to the left margin on the dorsal surface. The single ellipsoid to spherical macronucleus is located left of midline in the cell center. There are multiple very small micronuclei which are difficult to discern in vivo. These become swollen and densely stained in silver impregnated specimens. The contractile vacuole is at the posterior end. There are rows of pink cortical pigment granules between the somatic kineties. The pigment, blepharismin, is structurally similar to hypericin. When exposed to light, blepharismin causes a change in the cell's membrane potential and thus direction of ciliary beat causing light avoidance or photodispersal. Exposure to bright light for even short periods causes cell lysis. This is often observed in illuminated Blepharisma under the microscope. Blepharismin probably has a defensive function against predators such as the haptorid ciliate, Dileptus. Collected from an artificial freshwater dredge pond near Boise, Idaho October 2004. DIC optics.
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Infraciliature (ventral side) of the medium-size pigmented heterotrich ciliate, Blepharisma lateritium (Ehrenberg,1831; Stein, 1859). The cell is teardrop-shaped and pale pink in color.Green endosymbiotic zoochlorellae are visible in the cytoplasm.A zoochlorellae-bearing Blepharisma species otherwise indistinguishable from B. lateritium was reported from freshwater in Iowa (Johnson,L.P.A symbiotic Blepharisma.Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 55:391-393,1948). The peristome extends about 2/3 the cell length along the left side. The peristome is bordered on the left by serial polykinetids forming an adoral zone of membranelles and on the right by a narrow undulating membrane. The longitudinal somatic kineties bend to the left margin on the dorsal surface. The single ellipsoid to spherical macronucleus is located left of midline in the cell center. There are multiple very small micronuclei which are difficult to discern in vivo. These become swollen and densely stained in silver impregnated specimens (seen here). Stained by silver carbonate techniique (see Foissner, W.Europ. J. Protistol.27,313-330;1991). Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho October 2004. Brightfield optics.
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Originally described by Ehrenberg under the name Bursaria lateritia.
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Originally described by Ehrenberg under the name Bursaria lateritia.
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Originally described by Ehrenberg under the name Bursaria lateritia.
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Phase contrast portrait of Blepharisma containing symbiotic green algae (zoochlorellae). An isolated report describes a species of Blepharisma resembling B. lateritium that had symbiotic algae (Johnson,L.P. A symbiotic Blepharisma. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 55:391-93,1948).Specimen from freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho
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Portrait of Blepharisma americanum (Suzuki, 1954).The pink coloration is due to the pigment blepharismin.The metachronously beating adoral membranelles are seen along the large peristome to the viewer's right anteriorly. Gigantism is common in this species. The three macronuclear nodules are visible here (the smaller middle nodule is adjacent to the larger anterior nodule. The contractile vacuole is at the posterior end.DIC.
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Two individuals of this 'pink' ciliate. This is the normal form the the cell. The pointed end is anterior, and an adoral zone of membranelles extends from the front to the cytostome near the middle of the cell. The large vacuole at the back of the cell is the contractile vacuole.
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Dark ground image of Blepharisma americanum. The anterior is pointed towards the bottom of the image. The silk like structure leading from the front of the cell is the adoral zone of memb ranelles and the undulating membrane. This species becomes cannibalistic under some circumstances, and the large red inclusions are food vacuoles containing the remnants of other cells of the same species.
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Phase contrast image of a cannibalistic (large) form of this species. The anterior is to bottom right. Under some circumstances, this species changes its feeding preferences and starts to eat other members of the same species. The large food vacuoles contain other blepharismas that are being digested.
