Mixotricha paradoxa

Mixotricha paradoxa

Mixotricha paradoxa is a unicellular eukaryote from the group of Parabasalia. He lives only in the gut of termites Type Mastotermes darwiniensis and forms with a rarely occurring bacteria movement symbiosis.

Features

The pear- shaped cells are visible with 300 to 800 microns for representatives of Parabasalia very large and with the naked eye. The area where the hostages start is defined as the front. Food intake will take place at the rear end.

You can degrade both cellulose as well as hemicellulose.

Mixotricha paradoxa has a total of four symbionts: instead of mitochondria it possesses rounded hydrogenosomes, gain energy through fermentation and release hydrogen, carbon dioxide and acetate.

Sitting at the cell surface around 250,000 hair-like spirochetes of the genus Treponema along with rod-shaped bacteria of the genus Bacteroides. The set back of spirochetes in a clip-like structure on the surface of the protozoa, which rod-shaped bacteria are each seated facing the front of the bracket.

In addition, sit on the surface to around 200 larger spirochetes of the species Canaleparolina darwiniensis. They are about 25 microns long and 0.5 microns in diameter. They are distributed irregularly over the entire surface, and lacking only in the region of the rear end of the cell.

Movement

On its surface, rod-shaped bacteria and spirochetes are moving ( and others) regularly arranged on projections. The spirochetes are not connected to each other; their movement is coordinated by the interaction with the surrounding liquid. As the liquid in the hindgut of termites is very viscous, arise metachronous waves that resemble the eyelash shock of ciliates. The better movement within the highly filled gut of termites and improved transport of nutrients are probably the reason for these moving Ektobionten. The four short flagella of Mixotricha paradoxa probably serve only to control, since the very large cell alone can not move with them.

History

The species was first described in 1933, the bacteria were from JL Sutherland, however, kept under a light microscope for normal eyelashes: hence the name Mixotricha " mixed hair " in reference to the unusual combination of cilia ( eyelashes ) and flagella on one species. The epithet paradoxa = " unexpectedly " refers to this unusual combination. A.V. Grimstone and L.R. Cleveland recognized in the 1950s in electron micrographs that this is bacteria.

Documents

• Hausmann, K.; Hülsmann, R.; Radek, R.: Protistology. 3 compl. revised. Ed, E. Content Free Trial. Berlin, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-510-65208-8.
• Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan: The Beast with five genomes. In: Natural History. 110, No. 5, June 2001.