Quantitative Microscopy Reveals the Ciliary Mechanism of Strobilidium Jumping Behavior
Research Mentor(s)
Nick Galati and Brady Olson
Description
Ciliates are critical to the marine food web by making the carbon formed by autotrophic phytoplankton available to other organisms. Ciliates feed on phytoplankton by using cilia to swim through the water. Unlike most ciliates, Strobilidium “jump” at velocities of up to 51.2 mm/s which is thought to help them consume phytoplankton. Although the jumping behavior has been observed, the mechanism that underlies the jumping behavior is not known. To investigate this, we isolated Strobilidium from the Salish sea and conducted high resolution microscopy. We found that when they jump, they both double their beat frequency and change the waveform of their cilia within several milliseconds leading to the dramatic increase in velocity during the jump. We have found that a calcium dependent contractile protein called centrin forms fibers that extend up from the basal bodies into the cilia. Since centrin causes rapid calcium dependent contraction in other ciliates, we hypothesized that manipulating calcium levels would result in a change in Strobilidium jumping behavior. We are currently working on processing the data from these experiments.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
May 2022
End Date
May 2022
Location
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
Department
CSE - Biology
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Quantitative Microscopy Reveals the Ciliary Mechanism of Strobilidium Jumping Behavior
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
Ciliates are critical to the marine food web by making the carbon formed by autotrophic phytoplankton available to other organisms. Ciliates feed on phytoplankton by using cilia to swim through the water. Unlike most ciliates, Strobilidium “jump” at velocities of up to 51.2 mm/s which is thought to help them consume phytoplankton. Although the jumping behavior has been observed, the mechanism that underlies the jumping behavior is not known. To investigate this, we isolated Strobilidium from the Salish sea and conducted high resolution microscopy. We found that when they jump, they both double their beat frequency and change the waveform of their cilia within several milliseconds leading to the dramatic increase in velocity during the jump. We have found that a calcium dependent contractile protein called centrin forms fibers that extend up from the basal bodies into the cilia. Since centrin causes rapid calcium dependent contraction in other ciliates, we hypothesized that manipulating calcium levels would result in a change in Strobilidium jumping behavior. We are currently working on processing the data from these experiments.