#blepharisma

Blepharisma americana

Journey to the Microcosmos- We Recorded Too Much Slow Motion Footage So Here's a Bonus Video

Journey to the Microcosmos- Giant Microscopic Cannibals

CC: "Instead of having sex and producing offspring, these two ciliates have sex and BECOME the offspring. They are both GENETICALLY DIFFERENT after the conjugation than they were before. When they're done, the conjugants separate, and to pass those new genes on to another generation, the organisms will have to eventually divide, producing daughter cells that now carry their own copies of this new nucleus."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Becoming Your Own Baby Through Conjugation

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

" Well, volvocine algae primarily reproduce asexually. But where many microbes divide through binary fission--deviding into two daughter cells that then grow and divide again--most volvocine algae are a little more chaotic. They divide through multiple fission, which means that any cell that's going to reproduce start by growing... a lot. If they want two daughter cells, they grow twice as big. If they want to make four, they grow four times as large. And once they get as big as they need to, the alage goes through a rapid series of divisions to produce all those daughter cells in quick succession."

Journey to the Microcosmos- How Did Multicellularity Evolve?

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"Today we're going to focus on one particular method of ciliate reproduction: my personal favorite, conjugation. We've actually shown ciliates like these mid-coitus before. Sometimes they seem to be frantically chasing each other like these two are and sometimes, they're more chill, like two blobs that are just very, very... close."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Becoming Your Own Baby Through Conjugation

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"The world is always changing and testing the organisms with it. Temperatures can become uncomfortable, nutrients can become scarce, and enemies can become plentiful. Adapting to these changing conditions requires change in the organism and its progeny. That change can come about in many different ways and manifest in many different forms, but one of the tried and true methods is sexual reproduction."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Becoming Your Own Baby Through Conjugation