Euryhaline Euglenoid Flagellates

Reverse engineering the euglenoid movement.

Euglenids exhibit an unconventional motility strategy amongst unicellular eukaryotes, consisting of large-amplitude highly concerted deformations of the entire body (euglenoid movement or metaboly). A plastic cell envelope called pellicle mediates these deformations. Unlike ciliary or flagellar motility, the biophysics of this mode is not well understood, including its efficiency and molecular ...

Ecophysiology of mixotrophic flagellates

Flagellar Regeneration in Protozoan Flagellates

The flagella of populations of three protozoan species (Ochromonas, Euglena, and Astasia) were amputated and allowed to regenerate. The kinetics of regeneration in all species were characterized by a lag phase during which there was no apparent flagellar elongation; this phase was followed by elongation at a rate which constantly decelerated as the original length was regained. Inhibition by cy...

Free Kinetosomes in Australian Flagellates

An electron microscope study was made of Deltotrichonympha and Koruga, two closely-related hypermastigote flagellates that live in the hindgut of the Australian termite, Mastotermes darwiniensis These symbiotic protozoans have a typical flagellated rostrum and long body flagella. Their "giant centrioles" (centriolar apparatus) are large, fibrillar, and granular bodies which do not resemble typi...

Acid hydrolases of trypanosomatid flagellates.

Homogenates from 5 species of Trypanosomatids were screened for the presence of a series of acid hydrolases. The insect flagellae, Crithidia sp., contains 5 enzymes reminiscent of plant parasitism, which were absent from or of very low specific activity in parasites of the genera, Trypanosoma and Leishmania. The latter mammalian parasites, on the other hand, exhibited higher acid proteinase and...