#amoebophilus simplex

“One of the most common questions we get is how to start your own journey to the microcosmos. The easiest thing is to get some water from outside and look at it under a microscope, but of course, picking and purchasing a microscope can be overwhelming. Like any hobby, it's probably best to start off simple and see what works for you, get some experience, and then build from there. Also, we might be working on some things to help you narrow down your search in the future, but we can't talk about it yet.”

Journey to the Microcosmos- Why Did We Start This Channel? (And Other Questions You've Been Asking)

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

“James, our master of microscopes, found this giant amoeba on the same slide where the Amoebophilus simplex fungus was infecting other smaller amoeba. So James set the slide in a humidity chamber... he didn't expect anything very dramatic to happen and for a week, nothing did.... Until a week later, when he was casually checking the slide to see the infected ones and found that the giant amoebas were stuffed with a bunch of tiny spores that looked similar to the ooomycetes we've seen before.

“Now, we don't know that this fungus is, just that after James found one giant amoeba filled up with spores cases, he found another one, and then another one! And even more oddly, the amoeba began to melt away and lay the spherical spore cases like they were eggs. And after several minutes, those spore cases melted away to release more spores. Now, the spores didn't seem to go anywhere. After several days, they were still just waiting on the slide. Maybe they're like Amoebophilus simplex, just waiting for the right host to come along or maybe there's something else going on that we don't know about and haven't accounted for.”

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Case of the Mistaken Amoeba

“In the case of the Ouramoeba vorax, it would take several decades for someone to correct Leidy's mistake. In 1902, the Swiss microbiologist Eugene Penard publish his own extensive work on protozoans: "The Rhizopods of the Leman Basin". And when it came to this particular creature, he quibbled with Leidy's quibbles with a fungal explanation. As far as Penard could see, those filaments had to be the result of some kind of parasite. And the observations he and later scientists would make have continued to support that what we are watching is a fungus in action.

“More specifically, we are watching a fungus called Amoebophilus simplex infect an amoeba. The infection might have started with a fungal spore getting attached to an amoeba, or perhaps the spore was part of a meal. Well, once inside the amoeba, the spores migrate to one end and begin to form those chains that Leidy observed. They're called haustoria, and they flower through the amoeba's membrane to create a thread of new spores that will eventually be released into the environment to find a new host.”

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Case of the Mistaken Amoeba

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

“In 1874, a naturalist by the name of Joseph Leidy took out his microscope and examined some water from a local Pennsylvania spring. On the other side of his lenses, he found a creature that looked a bit like this one. Leidy documented the creature in his microscopy magnum opus "Fresh-water Rhizopods of North America," which includes beautiful images produced through chromolithography, an early method of color printing, based on what he'd seen. And just like you might, he had some assumptions about what he thought this thing was.”

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Case of the Mistaken Amoeba