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Protists, memes and random musings

Psi Wavefunction
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April 25, 2010
08:28 AM
3,036 views

Social onychophorans!

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

As much as I'm obsessed with protists, I'm a rather promiscuous type when it comes to academic relationships, and thus can find the occasional non-protist cute and interesting. Forgive me if that is 'immoral', but I'm not Christian and thus am not obligated to be intellectually monogamous. So there.Onychophorans (velvet worms) are fucking adorable. Now, whether they are more or less adorable than, say, hypotrich ciliates or Apusomonas proboscidea, is open to debate (I remain loyal to my tribal a........ Read more »

Dias, S., & Lo-Man-Hung, N. (2009) First record of an onychophoran (Onychophora, Peripatidae) feeding on a theraphosid spider (Araneae, Theraphosidae). Journal of Arachnology, 37(1), 116-117. DOI: 10.1636/ST08-20.1

Mayer, G., & Harzsch, S. (2007) Immunolocalization of serotonin in Onychophora argues against segmental ganglia being an ancestral feature of arthropods. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 7(1), 118. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-7-118

Mayer, G., & Whitington, P. (2009) Neural development in Onychophora (velvet worms) suggests a step-wise evolution of segmentation in the nervous system of Panarthropoda. Developmental Biology, 335(1), 263-275. DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2009.08.011

Reinhard, J., & Rowell, D. (2005) Social behaviour in an Australian velvet worm, Euperipatoides rowelli (Onychophora: Peripatopsidae). Journal of Zoology, 267(01), 1. DOI: 10.1017/S0952836905007090

November 27, 2009
06:44 AM
1,570 views

Heterolobosea II - 'Split Morphology Disorder': amoebo-flagellate transformation in Naegleria

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Earlier, in Heterolobosea I, I promised brain-eating amoebae with a split morphology disorder. Having a bit of a morphology fetish, I find the latter topic fascinating, so bear with me as we get into some gory details of cell biology, which I strive to make at least somewhat readable to sane human beings. As always, please let me know if anything is unclear, or *gasp* inaccurate...Fundamentals of cellular morphologyMost organisms strive to have some semblance of shape (including bacteria). To cr........ Read more »

Dingle AD, & Fulton C. (1966) Development of the flagellar apparatus of Naegleria. The Journal of cell biology, 31(1), 43-54. PMID: 5971974

Fulton C, & Walsh C. (1980) Cell differentiation and flagellar elongation in Naegleria gruberi. Dependence on transcription and translation. The Journal of cell biology, 85(2), 346-60. PMID: 6154711

González-Robles, A., Cristóbal-Ramos, A., González-Lázaro, M., Omaña-Molina, M., & Martínez-Palomo, A. (2009) Naegleria fowleri: Light and electron microscopy study of mitosis. Experimental Parasitology, 122(3), 212-217. DOI: 10.1016/j.exppara.2009.03.016

Outka DE, & Kluss BC. (1967) The ameba-to-flagellate transformation in Tetramitus rostratus. II. Microtubular morphogenesis. The Journal of cell biology, 35(2), 323-46. PMID: 4861775

WALSH, C. (2007) The role of actin, actomyosin and microtubules in defining cell shape during the differentiation of Naegleria amebae into flagellates. European Journal of Cell Biology, 86(2), 85-98. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejcb.2006.10.003

October 5, 2009
05:20 AM
1,545 views

Sunday Protist - Euglyphids

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

I'm going to be lazy and leech off the Mystery Micrograph again. None of you saner people (non-protistgeeks) seem to have taken advantage of the massive handicap, and subsequent hint. Seriously, type in "testate amoebae" in Google image search, and it's on the first page! Perhaps I should do a tutorial on some methods of attacking those mystery images...Quite shockingly(not!), Opisthokont got the last one. I agree with his statement that that was like shooting fish in a barrel, but easier since ........ Read more »

BODYL, A., MACKIEWICZ, P., & STILLER, J. (2007) The intracellular cyanobacteria of Paulinella chromatophora: endosymbionts or organelles?. Trends in Microbiology, 15(7), 295-296. DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2007.05.002

Javaux EJ. (2007) The early eukaryotic fossil record. Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 1-19. PMID: 17977455

Keeling, P. (2004) Diversity and evolutionary history of plastids and their hosts. American Journal of Botany, 91(10), 1481-1493. DOI: 10.3732/ajb.91.10.1481

KEELING, P., & ARCHIBALD, J. (2008) Organelle Evolution: What's in a Name?. Current Biology, 18(8). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.065

LARA, E., HEGER, T., MITCHELL, E., MEISTERFELD, R., & EKELUND, F. (2007) SSU rRNA Reveals a Sequential Increase in Shell Complexity Among the Euglyphid Testate Amoebae (Rhizaria: Euglyphida). Protist, 158(2), 229-237. DOI: 10.1016/j.protis.2006.11.006

NOWACK, E., MELKONIAN, M., & GLOCKNER, G. (2008) Chromatophore Genome Sequence of Paulinella Sheds Light on Acquisition of Photosynthesis by Eukaryotes. Current Biology, 18(6), 410-418. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.02.051

THEISSEN, U., & MARTIN, W. (2006) The difference between organelles and endosymbionts. Current Biology, 16(24). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.11.020

Yoon, H., Reyes-Prieto, A., Melkonian, M., & Bhattacharya, D. (2006) Minimal plastid genome evolution in the Paulinella endosymbiont. Current Biology, 16(17). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.08.018

November 4, 2009
07:17 AM
1,394 views

MM#07 Answer: Haplosporidia -- spores with lids

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Johan, our resident micropaleontologist, got this past week's Mystery Micrograph - congratulations! The answer was: Haplosporidia. Johan went the extra mile and identified its genus: Minchinia. This one is M.mercenariae, from Ford et al. 2009 JEM:Minchinia mercenariae (Haplosporidian) from the clam Mercenaria mercenaria; 13 - SEM of spore with arrow pointing to the opening; 12 - spore with a closed hinged lid; 2 - Minchinia's 'habitat' in the clam connective tissue (which it has taken over), whi........ Read more »

Azevedo, C. (1984) Ultrastructure of the Spore of Haplosporidium lusitanicum sp. n. (Haplosporida, Haplosporidiidae), Parasite of a Marine Mollusc. The Journal of Parasitology, 70(3), 358. DOI: 10.2307/3281564

AZEVEDO, C., BALSEIRO, P., CASAL, G., GESTAL, C., ARANGUREN, R., STOKES, N., CARNEGIE, R., NOVOA, B., BURRESON, E., & FIGUERAS, A. (2006) Ultrastructural and molecular characterization of Haplosporidium montforti n. sp., parasite of the European abalone Haliotis tuberculata. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 92(1), 23-32. DOI: 10.1016/j.jip.2006.02.002

Azevedo, C., Casal, G., & Montes, J. (2008) Ultrastructural Developmental Cycle of Haplosporidium montforti (Phylum Haplosporidia) in its Farmed Abalone Host, Haliotis tuberculata (Gastropoda). Journal of Parasitology, 94(1), 137-142. DOI: 10.1645/GE-1177.1

Cavalier-Smith, T., & Chao, E. (2003) Phylogeny of Choanozoa, Apusozoa, and Other Protozoa and Early Eukaryote Megaevolution. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 56(5), 540-563. DOI: 10.1007/s00239-002-2424-z

FORD, S., STOKES, N., BURRESON, E., SCARPA, E., CARNEGIE, R., KRAEUTER, J., & BUSHEK, D. (2009) Minchinia mercenariae n. sp. (Haplosporidia) in the Hard Clam Mercenaria mercenaria Implications of a Rare Parasite in a Commercially Important Host . Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 56(6), 542-551. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2009.00432.x

July 21, 2009
04:24 AM
1,317 views

Sunday Protist - Dinoflagellate eats Chaetoceros (gory) (for real this time!)

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

(Yesterday's attempts were derailed by having to shred some New Age BS instead)The media seems to be obsessed with posting pictures/videos of things eating things; apparently that generates a lot of revenue interest. Since I'm neck deep in syntactic trees and X-bar theory (Yes, I voluntarily, by my own will, as an elective, take third year syntax & grammar courses. Also, I dislike Chomsky. Clearly, I am very sane), I'm going to resort to posting gory pictures: (and yes, I mixed up Chaetoce........ Read more »

Jacobson, D., & Anderson, D. (1986) THECATE HETEROPHIC DINOFLAGELLATES: FEEDING BEHAVIOR AND MECHANISMS. Journal of Phycology, 22(3), 249-258. DOI: 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1986.tb00021.x

Jacobson, D., & Anderson, D. (1992) ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE FEEDING APPARATUS AND MYONEMAL SYSTEM OF THE HETEROTROPHIC DINOFLAGELLATE PROTOPERIDINIUM SPINULOSUM1. Journal of Phycology, 28(1), 69-82. DOI: 10.1111/j.0022-3646.1992.00069.x

September 12, 2009
09:45 PM
1,253 views

A quick note on flagella, and their evolution

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

First off, 'flagella' and 'cilia' tend to be used interchangeably. I prefer to call them flagella, out of habit, but there's some who argue 'flagellum' should be reserved for bacteria, who have a fundamentally different system from us; while we have 'cilia'. Another note: 'flagella' is spelled with two l's, 'cilia' with one. Took me about two months of protistology to learn that. (also, I consistently spelled 'axopodia' as 'auxopodia', thanks to a plant biology research background. Curse you, au........ Read more »

Roger, A., & Simpson, A. (2009) Evolution: Revisiting the Root of the Eukaryote Tree. Current Biology, 19(4). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.12.032

WALKER, G., DACKS, J., & MARTIN EMBLEY, T. (2006) Ultrastructural Description of Breviata anathema, N. Gen., N. Sp., the Organism Previously Studied as "Mastigamoeba invertens". The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 53(2), 65-78. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2005.00087.x

September 19, 2009
05:06 AM
1,234 views

'Crhaptophytes' and the Chromalveolate Hypothesis

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Procrastination with about a million things (including overdue blog posts) is the perfect time to blog a freshly published paper. Although I can't quite figure out how to make the preceding sentence make any sense syntactically...Warning: This post contains copious amounts of obscure phylogeny and taxonomy. Discussed by a cell biologist. Proceed with caution.I've probably carelessly alluded before to the Chromalveolate Hypothesis by Cavalier-Smith (eg. 2002 Curr Biol). In any case, I tend to go ........ Read more »

Moore, R., Oborník, M., Janouškovec, J., Chrudimský, T., Vancová, M., Green, D., Wright, S., Davies, N., Bolch, C., Heimann, K.... (2008) A photosynthetic alveolate closely related to apicomplexan parasites. Nature, 451(7181), 959-963. DOI: 10.1038/nature06635

Cavalier-Smith, T. (2002) Chloroplast Evolution: Secondary Symbiogenesis and Multiple Losses. Current Biology, 12(2). DOI: 10.1016/S0960-9822(01)00675-3

KEELING, P., BURGER, G., DURNFORD, D., LANG, B., LEE, R., PEARLMAN, R., ROGER, A., & GRAY, M. (2005) The tree of eukaryotes. Trends in Ecology , 20(12), 670-676. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.09.005

KEELING, P. (2009) Chromalveolates and the Evolution of Plastids by Secondary Endosymbiosis. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 56(1), 1-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2008.00371.x

Okamoto, N., Chantangsi, C., Horák, A., Leander, B., & Keeling, P. (2009) Molecular Phylogeny and Description of the Novel Katablepharid Roombia truncata gen. et sp. nov., and Establishment of the Hacrobia Taxon nov. PLoS ONE, 4(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007080

REYESPRIETO, A., MOUSTAFA, A., & BHATTACHARYA, D. (2008) Multiple Genes of Apparent Algal Origin Suggest Ciliates May Once Have Been Photosynthetic. Current Biology, 18(13), 956-962. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.05.042

October 26, 2009
04:48 AM
1,232 views

Sunday Protist - Nucleariids

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

While exploring the various corners of the protistan world, I've been neglecting our close relatives - the Opisthokonts. Let's quickly remedy the situation.A couple weekends ago I had some pond water on hand, and it turned out to be quite productive. I was on a bit of a heliozoan and amoeba spree when I encountered these things:At first it seemed like a 'heliozoan'*, but wasn't quite round enough. Then I noticed filopodia. Heliozoa with filopodia? Nah. But it didn't quite qualify for your typica........ Read more »

Brown, M., Spiegel, F., & Silberman, J. (2009) Phylogeny of the "forgotten" cellular slime mold, Fonticula alba, reveals a key evolutionary branch within Opisthokonta. Molecular Biology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msp185

RUIZTRILLO, I., BURGER, G., HOLLAND, P., KING, N., LANG, B., ROGER, A., & GRAY, M. (2007) The origins of multicellularity: a multi-taxon genome initiative. Trends in Genetics, 23(3), 113-118. DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2007.01.005

August 18, 2009
05:27 AM
1,228 views

The Myth of Evolutionary Ascent

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Many physicists whine about the public's grotesque misunderstanding of basic concepts like centripetal force and electromagnetism. Some of those very physicists often like to consider biology to be a simple subject, delivering profound lines like "people still study evolution???". Of course, how can anyone have any problems understanding something that barely uses any formulas! Of all sciences, biology uses the smallest portion of the Greek alphabet, and hasn't even moved on to Hebrew yet. How c........ Read more »

DC Dennett. (1995) Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Darwin's Dangerous Idea. info:/

Collins RA, & Lambowitz AM. (1985) RNA splicing in Neurospora mitochondria. Defective splicing of mitochondrial mRNA precursors in the nuclear mutant cyt18-1. Journal of molecular biology, 184(3), 413-28. PMID: 2413216

LEANDER, B. (2008) Different modes of convergent evolution reflect phylogenetic distances: a reply to Arendt and Reznick. Trends in Ecology , 23(9), 481-482. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2008.04.012

LEANDER, B. (2008) A Hierarchical View of Convergent Evolution in Microbial Eukaryotes. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 55(2), 59-68. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2008.00308.x

SLAMOVITS, C., & KEELING, P. (2008) Widespread recycling of processed cDNAs in dinoflagellates. Current Biology, 18(13). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.054

Stoltzfus, A. (1999) On the Possibility of Constructive Neutral Evolution. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 49(2), 169-181. DOI: 10.1007/PL00006540

July 15, 2009
08:52 AM
1,218 views

"Sunday" Protist - Trichonympha returns!

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Finally published today: Extreme Trichonympha sexiness:(Carpenter, Chow and Keeling 2009. Morphology, Phylogeny, and Diversity of Trichonympha (Parabasalia: Hypermastigida) of the Wood-Feeding Cockroach Cryptocercus punctulatus. J Euk Microbiol 56:305-313I stole these while the manuscript was in advance online publication, before the images were shrunk and butchered to fit print quality:The little rod shaped things in 12-15 are some bacteria on the posterior end of the cell. 26-28 - after removi........ Read more »

CARPENTER, K., CHOW, L., & KEELING, P. (2009) Morphology, Phylogeny, and Diversity of Trichonympha(Parabasalia: Hypermastigida) of the Wood-Feeding Cockroach Cryptocercus punctulatus . Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 56(4), 305-313. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2009.00406.x

September 11, 2009
03:45 AM
1,207 views

Finger-growing dinoflagellate (cute!)

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Why must I spoil the plot by peeking into advance online publications instead of waiting for the damn issue to come out, like normal people do? Especially with an 8am class coming up so soon...Anyway, apparently Ceratium ranipes, a photosynthetic dinoflagellate, decided to grow plastid-stuffed 'fingers' during daylight:(Pizay et al. 2009 Protist, in press; light period)And retracts them back in for the night:(Pizay et al. 2009 Protist, in press; dark period)In case you're not convinced these are........ Read more »

Pizay, M., Lemée, R., Simon, N., Cras, A., Laugier, J., & Dolan, J. (2009) Night and Day Morphologies in a Planktonic Dinoflagellate. Protist. DOI: 10.1016/j.protis.2009.04.003

June 21, 2010
09:02 AM
1,204 views

Sunday Protist - Lagynion: bottled algae

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Quick one today as I should really be writing a chapter, as well as the post on plastid thiefs some of you wanted. And haptophytes. Have I mentioned my ADD tendencies?While I find ochrophytes (large group including diatoms and kelps) a bit too phycological for my tastes, some of them are actually really cool, especially Chrysophytes - the 'golden algae'. Chrysos include things like scaly flagellates (Paraphysomonas) and Dinobryon which makes colonies that look like trees of stacked wine glasses......... Read more »

Nicholls, K. (1987) CHRYSOAMPHIPYXIS GEN. NOVA A NEW GENUS IN THE STYLOCOCCACEAE (CHRYSOPHYCEAE). Journal of Phycology, 23(3), 499-501. DOI: 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1987.tb02537.x

O'Kelly, C., & Wujek, D. (2001) Cell structure and asexual reproduction in Lagynion delicatulum (Stylococcaceae, Chrysophyceae). European Journal of Phycology, 36(1), 51-59. DOI: 10.1080/09670260110001735198

July 13, 2010
08:41 AM
1,179 views

Sunday Protist - Giant tree of spicules: Spiculidendron

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Christopher Taylor over at Catalogue of Organisms has a nice post on agglutinated Saccamminid foraminifera, and very recently wrote on the taxonomy and morphology of Pelosina, Pilulina and Technitella, wherein he brought up a fascinating paper on one hell of a bizarre foram: the 'spicule tree', initally mistaken for a gorgonian (sea fan). I'm going to leech off his find as he didn't specifically mention this tree foram in his post. Also, he mentioned Komokians before I did. Meanie. In all seriou........ Read more »

Rützler, K., & Richardson, S. (1996) The Caribbean spicule tree: a sponge-imitating foraminifer (Astrorhizidae). Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 66 (Suppl.), 143-151. info:/

Bowser, S. (2002) RETICULOPODIA: STRUCTURAL AND BEHAVIORAL BASIS FOR THE SUPRAGENERIC PLACEMENT OF GRANULORETICULOSAN PROTISTS. The Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 32(4), 440-447. DOI: 10.2113/0320440

BOWSER, S. (1985) Invasive Activity of Allogromia Pseudopodial Networks: Skyllocytosis of a Gelatin/Agar Gel. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 32(1), 9-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1985.tb03005.x

October 19, 2009
06:26 AM
1,171 views

Sunday Protist - Diplonemids: Metaboly without a pellicle and the dawn of kDNA?

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Took you guys a while to get the past Mystery Micrograph, which gave me ample excuses to procrastinate with last week's Sunday Protist. Of course, no one noticed, so it's all good, right? Opisthokont finally got it after every single other discicristate lineage has been eliminated, and grotesquely revealing hints have been given away. Johan guessed their sister clade, Kinetoplastida. More importantly, we need fresh blood on this blog, and thus far, the Mystery Micrograph winners have been an inc........ Read more »

Leander, B., Witek, R., & Farmer, M. (2001) TRENDS IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE EUGLENID PELLICLE. Evolution, 55(11), 2215. DOI: 10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[2215:TITEOT]2.0.CO;2

Marande, W., Lukes, J., & Burger, G. (2005) Unique Mitochondrial Genome Structure in Diplonemids, the Sister Group of Kinetoplastids. Eukaryotic Cell, 4(6), 1137-1146. DOI: 10.1128/EC.4.6.1137-1146.2005

ROY, J., FAKTOROVÁ, D., BENADA, O., LUKEŠ, J., & BURGER, G. (2007) Description of Rhynchopus euleeides n. sp. (Diplonemea), a Free-Living Marine Euglenozoan. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 54(2), 137-145. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2007.00244.x

Roy, J., Faktorová, D., Lukeš, J., & Burger, G. (2007) Unusual Mitochondrial Genome Structures throughout the Euglenozoa. Protist, 158(3), 385-396. DOI: 10.1016/j.protis.2007.03.002

Simpson AG, Lukes J, & Roger AJ. (2002) The evolutionary history of kinetoplastids and their kinetoplasts. Molecular biology and evolution, 19(12), 2071-83. PMID: 12446799

SIMPSON, A. (2004) Early Evolution within Kinetoplastids (Euglenozoa), and the Late Emergence of Trypanosomatids. Protist, 155(4), 407-422. DOI: 10.1078/1434461042650389

STURM, N., MASLOV, D., GRISARD, E., & CAMPBELL, D. (2001) Diplonema spp. Possess Spliced Leader RNA Genes Similar to the Kinetoplastida. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 48(3), 325-331. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2001.tb00321.x

SWALE, E. (1973) A study of the colourless flagellate Rhynchomonas nasuta (Stokes) Klebs. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 5(3), 255-264. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.1973.tb00705.x

VICKERMAN, K. (1977) DNA Throughout the Single Mitochondrion of a Kinetoplastid Flagellate: Observations on the Ultrastructure of Cryptobia vaginalis (Hesse, 1910). The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 24(2), 221-233. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1977.tb00970.x

February 9, 2010
05:56 AM
1,159 views

ToE Expansion pack: Foraminifera!

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

After getting over my little moment of rage there, I decided to go ahead and redo the forams while I could still vaguely remember the phylogeny, sort of. So here comes the Tree of Eukaryotes Expansion Pack: Forams!I hope somebody is happy now, after nagging me about the freaking forams for the past two weeks! I know they deserve more space, and I did them an awful injustice by shrinking the entire group to just 'Forams'. Since I still haven't figured out the space problem (should I just shrink e........ Read more »

Flakowski, J. (2005) ACTIN PHYLOGENY OF FORAMINIFERA. The Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 35(2), 93-102. DOI: 10.2113/35.2.93

HABURA, A., GOLDSTEIN, S., PARFREY, L., & BOWSER, S. (2006) Phylogeny and Ultrastructure of Miliammina fusca: Evidence for Secondary Loss of Calcification in a Miliolid Foraminifer. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 53(3), 204-210. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2006.00096.x

LONGET, D., & PAWLOWSKI, J. (2007) Higher-level phylogeny of Foraminifera inferred from the RNA polymerase II (RPB1) gene. European Journal of Protistology, 43(3), 171-177. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejop.2007.01.003

Pawlowski, J. (2003) The evolution of early Foraminifera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(20), 11494-11498. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2035132100

August 24, 2009
08:01 AM
1,139 views

Sunday Protist - Perkinsela: Life as an organelle

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

We've all heard of the primary endosymbiosis of bacteria that eventually became mitochondria* and plastids, on two separate occasions (three if you count Paulinella plastid origin). Some have heard of secondary, and maybe even tertiary, plastid endosymbiosis (eg. brown algae with red algal plastids). There's a fascinating case of tertiary endosymbiosis where an entire diatom inhabiting a dino (Kryptoperidinium), etc. Another interesting phenomenon is the endosymbiosis resulting in other essentia........ Read more »

DYKOVA, I. (2003) -like endosymbionts of spp., relatives of the kinetoplastid. European Journal of Protistology, 39(1), 37-52. DOI: 10.1078/0932-4739-00901

DYKOVA, I., FIALA, I., DVORAKOVA, H., & PECKOVA, H. (2008) Living together: The marine amoeba Thecamoeba hilla Schaeffer, 1926 and its endosymbiont Labyrinthula sp. European Journal of Protistology, 44(4), 308-316. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejop.2008.04.001

DYKOVA, I., FIALA, I., & PECKOVA, H. (2008) Neoparamoeba spp. and their eukaryotic endosymbionts similar to Perkinsela amoebae (Hollande, 1980): Coevolution demonstrated by SSU rRNA gene phylogenies. European Journal of Protistology, 44(4), 269-277. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejop.2008.01.004

Liu, B., Liu, Y., Motyka, S., Agbo, E., & Englund, P. (2005) Fellowship of the rings: the replication of kinetoplast DNA. Trends in Parasitology, 21(8), 363-369. DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2005.06.008

Lovy J, Becker JA, Speare DJ, Wadowska DW, Wright GM, & Powell MD. (2007) Ultrastructural examination of the host cellular response in the gills of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, with amoebic gill disease. Veterinary pathology, 44(5), 663-71. PMID: 17846238

SIMPSON, A., STEVENS, J., & LUKES, J. (2006) The evolution and diversity of kinetoplastid flagellates. Trends in Parasitology, 22(4), 168-174. DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2006.02.006

YOUNG, N., CROSBIE, P., ADAMS, M., NOWAK, B., & MORRISON, R. (2007) Neoparamoeba perurans n. sp., an agent of amoebic gill disease of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)☆. International Journal for Parasitology, 37(13), 1469-1481. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2007.04.018

December 22, 2009
07:24 AM
1,127 views

Sunday Protist -- Oligotrich Ciliates: another morphological acid trip

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

Of course, no one noticed any delays in the posting of the Sunday Protist, because that never happened. Actually, I've been rather frazzled by this little fun activity that happens around this time of the year called 'finals', and thus had to desperately avoid any material I may find myself actually interested in, lest it hijacks my attention for too long. Also, I'll be mostly internetless starting tomorrow, and thus unable to blog. Coming back on 03 January. May or may not schedule a post, depe........ Read more »

Agatha S. (2004) A cladistic approach for the classification of oligotrichid ciliates (Ciliophora: Spirotricha). Acta Protozoologica , 43(3), 201-217. info:/

AGATHA, S. (2004) Evolution of ciliary patterns in the Oligotrichida (Ciliophora, Spirotricha) and its taxonomic implications. Zoology, 107(2), 153-168. DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2004.02.003

AGATHA, S., STRUDER-KYPKE, M., & BERAN, A. (2004) Morphologic and Genetic Variability in the Marine Planktonic Ciliate Laboea strobila Lohmann, 1908 (Ciliophora, Oligotrichia), with Notes on its Ontogenesis. The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 51(3), 267-281. DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2004.tb00567.x

Gao, S., Gong, J., Lynn, D., Lin, X., & Song, W. (2009) An updated phylogeny of oligotrich and choreotrich ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora, Spirotrichea) with representative taxa collected from Chinese coastal waters. Systematics and Biodiversity, 7(02), 235. DOI: 10.1017/S1477200009002989

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March 28, 2010
03:49 AM
1,113 views

Sunday Protist -- Trichotokara nothriae: Guitar-shaped gregarine

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

This post turned into a bit of a hodgepodge of various gregarine-related trivia. Proceed with caution.Gregarines are a group of apicomplexans (='Sporozoa', a vastly diverse group famous for the malarial parasite Plasmodium and the behaviour-altering Toxoplasma) characterised by a monoxenous (single host) lifestyle that is quite different from that of other 'apis'. Christopher Taylor wrote a nice post about them here.Apicomplexa are alveolates along with ciliates and dinoflagellates; you can find........ Read more »

Baum, J., Papenfuss, A., Baum, B., Speed, T., & Cowman, A. (2006) Regulation of apicomplexan actin-based motility. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 4(8), 621-628. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1465

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June 26, 2010
10:28 AM
1,111 views

Criminally photosynthetic: Myrionecta, Dinophysis and stolen plastids

by Psi Wavefunction in Skeptic Wonder

The microbial world is full of vicious beasts. Yes, much of microbial life is cute and cuddly in one way or another. But that doesn't stop many of them from making wolverines seem docile by comparison. There is an entire mafia out there built around...organ theft; including some multicellular players as well, in case you thought animals were saintly. Today we'll look at some famous thieving masterminds of the plastid black market, but keep in mind that there are many more fascinating rela........ Read more »

Garcia-Cuetos, L., Moestrup, �., Hansen, P., & Daugbjerg, N. (2010) The toxic dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata harbors permanent chloroplasts of cryptomonad origin, not kleptochloroplasts. Harmful Algae, 9(1), 25-38. DOI: 10.1016/j.hal.2009.07.002

Johnson, M. (2010) The acquisition of phototrophy: adaptive strategies of hosting endosymbionts and organelles. Photosynthesis Research. DOI: 10.1007/s11120-010-9546-8

Johnson, M., Oldach, D., Delwiche, C., & Stoecker, D. (2007) Retention of transcriptionally active cryptophyte nuclei by the ciliate Myrionecta rubra. Nature, 445(7126), 426-428. DOI: 10.1038/nature05496

Keeling, P. (2004) Diversity and evolutionary history of plastids and their hosts. American Journal of Botany, 91(10), 1481-1493. DOI: 10.3732/ajb.91.10.1481

OAKLEY, B., & TAYLOR, F. (1978) Evidence for a new type of endosymbiotic organization in a population of the ciliate Mesodinium rubrum from British Columbia. Biosystems, 10(4), 361-369. DOI: 10.1016/0303-2647(78)90019-9

Park, M., Kim, S., Kim, H., Myung, G., Kang, Y., & Yih, W. (2006) First successful culture of the marine dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, 101-106. DOI: 10.3354/ame045101

Stoecker, D., Johnson, M., deVargas, C., & Not, F. (2009) Acquired phototrophy in aquatic protists. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, 279-310. DOI: 10.3354/ame01340

TAYLOR, F., BLACKBOURN, D., & BLACKBOURN, J. (1969) Ultrastructure of the Chloroplasts and Associated Structures within the Marine Ciliate Mesodinium rubrum (Lohmann). Nature, 224(5221), 819-821. DOI: 10.1038/224819a0

Wisecaver, J., & Hackett, J. (2010) Transcriptome analysis reveals nuclear-encoded proteins for the maintenance of temporary plastids in the dinoflagellate Dinophysis acuminata. BMC Genomics, 11(1), 366. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-11-366

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