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Cytology

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Paramecium

Abstract

Paramecium is a single-celled eukaryotic organism. Being an organism, Paramecium carries on all the normal functions required to sustain and propagate life, including growth, metabolism, catabolism, and reproduction. Being a cell, and more specifically an aerobic cell, Paramecium contains the typical structures and organelles of aerobic nonphotosynthetic eukaryotic cells. These include an uninterrupted cell membrane, a cytoplasm containing mitochondria, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, a Golgi apparatus, an endocytic system of coated pits, and shuttle vesicles, a phagosome-lysosome system and food storage bodies, and a nuclear system containing nucleoli, chromatin, and nuclear envelope. In addition, Paramecium possesses the elements necessary for movement, both of the cell as a whole and of the organelles within the cell. These elements are the microtubules and microfilaments variously organized into multiple cilium-basal body complexes and into bundles, bands, meshworks, and ribbons within the cytoplasm. Paramecium also contains more specialized structures found in only a few eukaryotic cells. These are the contractile vacuole complexes, the dual nuclear system, the alveolar system, and the specialized extrusive organelles called trichocysts, as well as the highly structured oral apparatus and the cytoproct, the site of defecation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Biomedical Research Center and Department of Microbiology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Richard D. Allen

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  1. Richard D. Allen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zoologisches Institut der Universität Münster, Schloßplatz 5, 4400, Münster, Germany

    Hans-Dieter Görtz

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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Allen, R.D. (1988). Cytology. In: Görtz, HD. (eds) Paramecium. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73086-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73086-3_2

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