mahaffy at dordt.edu (James Mahaffy) wrote:
> Anyone have a pretty sure fire way to get trichocysts to
>fire on demand from
>ciliates? I have a lab, I teach in Zoology where we use
>Paramecium and some other ciliates
there are 3 (at least) quite different possibilities :
1. the "natural" or physiological way will use the attack of predators
like Dileptus to induce localized trichocyst extrusion; for details
see:
- Harumoto T, Miyake A (1991) Defensive function of trichocysts in
Paramecium. J Exp Zool 260:84-92
- Knoll G, Haacke-Bell B, Plattner H (1991) Local trichocyst
exocytosis provides an efficient escape mechanism for Paramecium
cells. Eur J Protistol 27:381-385
2. a potent chemical inducing extrusion without impairing cell
viability is aminoethyldextran (available from Sigma e.g.); see:
- Plattner H, Matt H, Kersken H, Haacke B, Stürzl R (1984) Synchronous
exocytosis in Paramecium cells. I. A novel approach. Exp Cell Res
151:6-13
3. a potent chemical inducing extrusion and simultaneous fixation is
picric acid, being in use for rather long times as sectretagogue in
this system; for a quite recent reference see e.g.:
- Satir BH (1989) Signal transduction events associated with
exocytosis in ciliates. J Protozool 36:382-389
hope this helps, Gerd
Gerd Knoll <gerd.knoll at uni-konstanz.de>
Fac Biol,Univ Konstanz, PF 5560 M646
D-78434 Konstanz, Germany
