Paramecia are generally studied for observation of their cilia on their outer membrane and their simple lifestyle. They are single-celled organisms that live in fresh water environments such as ponds (Genoscope, 2007). Paramecia are on average 120 micrometers in length and covered in hair-like projections called cilia, which are easy to observe under a light microscope in a laboratory (Fraga, 2001). The cilia on the Paramecia allow the organisms to swim in one direction, under normal conditions they swim only forwards but, when under toxic or abnormal conditions they reverse and swim backward to try to find a homeostatic environment (Fraga, 2001). When they are in a normal environment calcium channels are closed in the ciliated membrane so the concentration in higher outside the cell than inside the cell (Genoscope, 2007).When they are under abnormal conditions the calcium channels open and the calcium ions flush into the cell to reach an equilibrium between the outside environment and the inside environment (Genoscope, 2011). Once regular calcium levels are restored the calcium channels are closed again and Paramecia swim forward again.
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| Figure 2: Experimental wells with NyQuil concentrations |
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| Figure 2: Control Paramecia. |
Once the week was over the
experimentation began. We did simple calculations to determine
concentrations of NyQuil to Paramecia,
starting with 50%, 10% and 5% solutions. After seeing that a 50%
solution of Nyquil to Paramecia left
the cells stunned and 100% dead we knew the concentrations we were
looking for were much less than that. In the 10% solution the cells were still alive when transferred to a slide for observation. These cells had very different swimming movements, almost drunk-like. They were spinning and barrel-rolling around in the solution, after several minutes elapsed of the erratic swimming the cells started to slow down and eventually stop moving entirely. The cells seemed to have a slight change in shape and appearance as well as the abnormal swimming patterns, as seen in the photograph of the control cell to the cells in NyQuil solutions there are several morphological changes.
These changes couldn't be defined
as mutations in the actual genetic code or just situational mutations
because the morphed cells didn't survive overnight to be transferred
to a new culture medium. The 10% solution cells died rather quickly
so we tried 5% which caused the same changes both behavior and
morphological but again these cells didn't survive overnight. The
next week we tried solutions with concentrations of 4%, 3%, 2%, and
1% NyQuil. With more time to keep these cells in these concentrations we saw the cells start to appear to be exploding their membranes. In the picture the the left, you can see the bubbled out of the membrane of the cells displaying the lysis process of cells. The behavior and morphological changes seen in the previous concentrations were also seen in these solutions but, with the decreased concentration of NyQuil the cells were swimming erratically for longer and longer periods of time before their swimming got to be sluggish.
I
think that if we had more time to experiment with these Paramecia
we could have gotten a concentration more exact that would have
sustained the life of the cells in the solution so we could have
concluded that an actual mutation had taken place. Although I think
we made some kind of change with the shape of the membrane of the
cells as well as the swimming patterns there is no statistical data
that we caused an actual mutation to the Paramecia
cultures.
References
Fraga, D. (2001,
July 2). How ion channels control paramecia behavior. Retrieved from http://www3.wooster.edu/biology/Ciliates/citc/Para_behavior.html
Genoscope.
(2007, Sept. 11). Paramecium teraurelia. Retrieved from http://www.cns.fr/spip/Paramecium-a-model-ciliate.htm
** All photos taken by myself (Abby Chauvin) in the lab using Image J software**
