Divya Rao

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Ciliophora Paramecium

• Divya Rao

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Interesting Facts

• If an encounters a negative stimulus, it is
  capable of rotating up to 360 degrees to find an
  escape route.
• Paramecium can discriminate between different
  levels of darkness.
• The macronuclear DNA has a very high gene density
  which allows it to have 800 copies of each gene
  in the macronucleus.
• Paramecium shows galvanotropism which is the
  movement of paramecium as they do not turn around
  to go the other way but the cilia will bend and
  face toward the other side and swim backward.

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Key Features

• Parameciums are heterotrophs. They commonly prey
  on bacteria. They capture their prey through
  phagocytosis. To catch food they eject trichocyts
  which are filled with proteins.
• To protect against the Didinium its vicious
  enemy it releases dart life objects from
  capsules that are scattered underneath their
  bodies. But unfortunately this method is
  completely ineffective to protect its self.
• It has a mutalistic symbiotic relationship with
  green algae called Zoochlorella. The algae live
  inside the paramecium in its cytoplasm and
  provides the Paramecium with food, while the
  Paramecium provides algae with movement.

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Life Cycle

• Paramecium are capable of both asexual and sexual
  reproduction.
• Asexual is the most common. Binary Fission is the
  form of asexual reproduction where the paramecium
  splits itself down the middle, making two new
  paramecium.
• They perform sexual reproduction only under
  stressful conditions. Two paramecium bind forming
  a cytoplasmic bridge between them. Then the
  micronucleus of the paramecium undergoes meiosis.
  Four nuclei are formed, three disintegrate and
  the other duplicates by mitosis. The daughter
  nucleus moves across the bridge and fuses with
  the other daughter nucleus to for a diploid
  nucleus. Then the cells separate. The old
  macronucleus disintegrates and a new one is
  formed from the micronucleus.

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Uses

• They are used in genetic engineering because they
  have the ability to reproduce quickly sometimes
  even three or four times a day.
• They help with the carbon cycle. As they eat
  bacteria which live on plants and these bacteria
  decompose the plant matter. The paramecium help
  speed up that process.

Carbon cycle