Nassulids have been found in freshwater and marine habitats in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Antarctica. Nassula is a voracious eater of Cyanobacteria, also called blue green algae, like Anabaena or Oscillatoria! It has been observed in Myers Lake in the US, that an Oscillatoria cyanobacteria bloom declined with the help of massive feeding by Nassula ciliates. The usage of Nassula as an agent of biological control of cyanobacteria blooms has even been studied!
The bright and beautiful colours characteristic of Nassula comes from the digestion of Cyanobacteria after being ingested by their basket shaped, which is a microtubular complex that looks like a little fork! When cyanobacteria are ingested, many small food vacuoles containing hydrolase enzymes are synthesized to breakdown and digest the food. The colour of those small bubbles (good vacuoles) depends of the pigments present in cyanos; blue-violet globules comes from eating species that have phycocyanins (Anabaena and some Oscillatoria), pink bubbles come from grazing on species that contains phycoerythrins, etc. Basically, depending of what Nassula eats, it will appear different colours when digested! Imagine if we could do that, my hair would probably be red/pinkish from overeating cherries and watermelon during summer 🙈
Soundtrack by @__forms__ 🌿
Video taken with my iPhone mounted on a BA310E Motic microscope with an @ilabcam adapter 🔬 @moticamericas
References:
Canter, H. M., Heaney, S. I., & Lund, J. W. G. (1990). The ecological significance of grazing on planktonic populations of cyanobacteria by the ciliate Nassula. New phytologist, 114(2), 247-263.
Lynn, D. (2008). The ciliated protozoa: characterization, classification, and guide to the literature. Springer Science & Business Media.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario