The plagiopylids are a small order of ciliates, including a few forms common in anaerobic habitats.
Paramecium is a genus of eukaryotic, unicellular ciliates, commonly studied as a model organism of the ciliate group. Paramecium are widespread in freshwater, brackish, and marine environments and are often abundant in stagnant basins and ponds. Because some species are readily cultivated and easily induced to conjugate and divide, they have been widely used in classrooms and laboratories to study biological processes. The usefulness of Paramecium as a model organism has caused one ciliate researcher to characterize it as the "white rat" of the phylum Ciliophora.
The Holosporaceae are a family of bacteria. The member Holospora is an intracellular parasite found in the unicellular protozoa Paramecium.
Tracy Morton Sonneborn was an American biologist. His life's study was ciliated protozoa of the group Paramecium.
Paramecium bursaria is a species of ciliate found in marine and brackish waters. It has a mutualistic endosymbiotic relationship with green algae called Zoochlorella. About 700 Chlorella cells live inside the protist's cytoplasm and provide it with food, while the Paramecium provides the algae with movement and protection. P. bursaria is 80-150 μm long, with a wide oral groove, two contractile vacuoles, and a single micronucleus as well as a single macronucleus. P. bursaria is the only species of Paramecium that forms symbiotic relationships with algae, and it is often used in biology classrooms both as an example of a protozoan and also as an example of symbiosis.
Didinium is a genus of unicellular ciliates with at least ten accepted species. All are free-living carnivores. Most are found in fresh and brackish water, but three marine species are known. Their diet consists largely of Paramecium, although they will also attack and consume other ciliates. Some species, such as D. gargantua, also feeds on non-ciliate protists, including dinoflagellates, cryptomonads, and green algae.
Trichonympha is a genus of single-celled, anaerobic parabasalids of the order Hypermastigia that is found exclusively in the hindgut of lower termites and wood roaches. Trichonympha’s bell shape and thousands of flagella make it an easily recognizable cell. The symbiosis between lower termites/wood roaches and Trichonympha is highly beneficial to both parties: Trichonympha helps its host digest cellulose and in return receives a constant supply of food and shelter. Trichonympha also has a variety of bacterial symbionts that are involved in sugar metabolism and nitrogen fixation.
In biology, Kappa organism or Kappa particle refers to inheritable cytoplasmic symbionts, occurring in some strains of the ciliate Paramecium. Paramecium strains possessing the particles are known as "killer paramecia". They liberate a substance also known as paramecin into the culture medium that is lethal to Paramecium that do not contain kappa particles. Kappa particles are found in genotypes of Paramecium aurelia syngen 2 that carry the dominant gene K.
Karyorelictea is a class of ciliates in the subphylum Postciliodesmatophora. Most species are members of the microbenthos community, that is, microscopic organisms found in the marine interstitial habitat, though one genus, Loxodes, is found in freshwater.
The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a different undulating pattern than flagella. Cilia occur in all members of the group and are variously used in swimming, crawling, attachment, feeding, and sensation.
Paramecium aurelia are unicellular organisms belonging to the genus Paramecium of the phylum Ciliophora. They are covered in cilia which help in movement and feeding.Paramecium can reproduce sexually, asexually, or by the process of endomixis. Paramecium aurelia demonstrate a strong "sex reaction" whereby groups of individuals will cluster together, and emerge in conjugant pairs. This pairing can last up to 12 hours, during which the micronucleus of each organism will be exchanged. In Paramecium aurelia, a cryptic species complex was discovered by observation. Since then, some have tried to decode this complex using genetic data.
Epixenosomes, also known as Candidatus Epixenosoma, are a genus of bacteria in the phylum Verrucomicrobiota that form a symbiosis with marine ciliates of the genus Euplotidium, where they help to defend their ciliate hosts against predators. It is a monospecific genus, containing only the species Ca. Epixenosoma ejectans.
Paramecium sonneborni is a species of unicellular organisms belonging to the genus Paramecium of the phylum Ciliophora. It was first isolated in Texas and named after Tracy M. Sonneborn. It is a member of the Paramecium aurelia species complex. They are covered in cilia and are distinguished by their difference in mating patterns and enzyme patterns. The length of Paramecium sonneborni is between 130 and 186 μm with a mean length of 154μm. It is the newest member of the Paramecium aurelia species complex. The current Paramecium sonneborni strains, so far, reveal very low viability in the generations and are a result of allopatric speciation.
Mesodinium rubrum is a species of ciliates. It constitutes a plankton community and is found throughout the year, most abundantly in spring and fall, in coastal areas. Although discovered in 1908, its scientific importance came into light in the late 1960s when it attracted scientists by the recurrent red colouration it caused by forming massive blooms, that cause red tides in the oceans.
Holosporales is an order of bacteria.
R bodies are polymeric protein inclusions formed inside the cytoplasm of bacteria. Initially discovered in kappa particles, bacterial endosymbionts of the ciliate Paramecium, R bodies have since been discovered in a variety of taxa.
Armophorea is a class of ciliates in the subphylum Intramacronucleata. . It was first resolved in 2004 and comprises three orders: Metopida, Clevelandellida, and Armophorida. Previously members of this class were thought to be heterotrichs because of similarities in morphology, most notably a characteristic dense arrangement of cilia surrounding their oral structures. However, the development of genetic tools and subsequent incorporation of DNA sequence information has led to major revisions in the evolutionary relationships of many protists, including ciliates. Metopids, clevelandellids, and armophorids were grouped into this class based on similarities in their small subunit rRNA sequences, making them one of two so-called "riboclasses" of ciliates, however, recent analyses suggest that Armophorida may not be related to the other two orders.
Parablepharismea is a class of free-living marine and brackish anaerobic ciliates that form a major clade of obligate anaerobes within the SAL group, together with the classes Muranotrichea and Armophorea.
Novymonas esmeraldas is a protist and member of flagellated trypanosomatids. It is an obligate parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of a bug, and is in turn a host to symbiotic bacteria. It maintains strict mutualistic relationship with the bacteria as a sort of cell organelle (endosymbiont) so that it cannot lead an independent life without the bacteria. Its discovery in 2016 suggests that it is a good model in the evolution of prokaryotes into eukaryotes by symbiogenesis. The endosymbiotic bacterium was identified as member of the genus Pandoraea.
Blepharismidae is a family of unicellular ciliate protists found in fresh and salt water. Two genera are recognized: Blepharisma, which contains some model organisms, and Pseudoblepharisma
