Many amoebae incorporate diatoms in their shells, but Cylindrifflugia bacillariarum is the master. Third and fourth pics are close views of the glue that holds it all together. #ProtistsonSky #Amoebae #Peatlands - ThreadSky

brucedstaylor.bsky.social • 24 days ago

Many amoebae incorporate diatoms in their shells, but Cylindrifflugia bacillariarum is the master. Third and fourth pics are close views of the glue that holds it all together. #ProtistsonSky #Amoebae #Peatlands

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dominiquechaput.bsky.social•24 days ago

This is so cool! I love putting diatoms under SEM but didn't know about amoebae building themselves diatom shells. 🤯 Thanks for sharing!

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•24 days ago

Arcellinid amoebae that build "agglutinated" shells tend to like siliceous materials...especially quartz when it's available. Where minerals are scarce, they'll happily build with diatoms, chrysophyte cysts, etc. This species is particularly good at it! 😎

floravincent.bsky.social•24 days ago

Quite interesting ! I have to say I have never heard about cylindrifflugia- we agree this is the diatom right ? Any idea about the amoebae ? This pattern is very common on tintinnid ciliates too !

floravincent.bsky.social•24 days ago

I have a hint :)

https://arcella.nl/cylindrifflugia-bacillariarum/ Cylindrifflugia bacillariarum – Microworld

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•24 days ago

Cylindrifflugia is fairly new. :) It was carved out of Difflugia, the oldest genus of testate amoebae, on molecular grounds. See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790322001701

fad1.bsky.social•23 days ago

Love it that they are OCD and have all their diatom shields neatly ordered.

jesseberman.bsky.social•23 days ago

Very neat images. As someone in a completely unrelated scientific field, it is great to learn/see new things.

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•23 days ago

Thanks! I came to protistology from poetry. So, some of these things are still somewhat new to me, as well. ;)

dumack.bsky.social•24 days ago

Stunning images!

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•24 days ago

Thanks, KD! I collected a bunch of them for measurements, and they all looked amazing.

sinkingdiatom.bsky.social•24 days ago

Those are fully intact diatoms that are normally highly motile. Does it glue them all down so they can't move?

And it's all the same diatom species – are the diatoms dividing on the amoeba, or does it specifically collect the same diatom species? Wild.

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•24 days ago

Yes, they're held in place by globules of organic cement (two of the pics show closeups). They seem to use whatever diatoms happen to be blooming, and will mix species readily. Not sure if C. bacillariarum preys on diatoms, but some arcellinids do. An old video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2t6r7GgRRI

sinkingdiatom.bsky.social•24 days ago

Made my day, Bruce!

sinkingdiatom.bsky.social•24 days ago

Amazing pictures – thanks for sharing!

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•24 days ago

Thanks, Andrew! It's a pretty amazing group of organisms.

geologyjohnson.bsky.social•23 days ago

What causes the glue to have this pustular texture? It reminds me of surface textures in some of my protist microfossils.

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•23 days ago

The glue is secreted in vesicles, generated in the Golgi apparatus and deposed as these discrete blobs...forming a matrix which varies in appearance from one species to the next. In some, the solidified matrix is quite fancy (see the attached pic of cement in Lesquereusia spiralis).

geologyjohnson.bsky.social•23 days ago

Interesting, thanks. The attached picture also looks like a surface texture on different type of fossil protist. Does the glue have a special name?

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•23 days ago

It's usually just referred to as "organic cement". I'm curious to know more about these fossil protists!

geologyjohnson.bsky.social•23 days ago

Here's a link to one of my fossil protists from the mid Proterozoic the fine scale texture is like the organic cement you showed. This type also have silica plates attached. You can see more in the "media" tab of my profile here. https://bsky.app/profile/geologyjohnson.bsky.social/post/3lprdhbxyh225

brucedstaylor.bsky.social•22 days ago

Thanks, very interesting!

surfinglavie.bsky.social•4 hours ago

This is amazing. Complexity theory (see Notes on Complexity by physician Neil Theise) in amoebae - systems are ubiquitous to the universe. Nothing is purely itself. Our own species would not exist without our microbiomes.

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