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Handbook of the Protists pp 1–52Cite as

Ciliophora

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Abstract

The ciliated protists (Phylum Ciliophora) are typically longer than 50 μm in body length and so are conspicuous microbial eukaryotes. There are over 8,000 species of these usually quickly moving protists, which locomote using files of cilia organized on the cell surface. In addition to the files of cilia or kineties on the cell surface, ciliates are also characterized by nuclear dimorphism or the possession of two kinds of nuclei: (1) the micronucleus, which is not transcriptionally active and which is considered the equivalent of the germ line in multicellular organisms and (2) a macronucleus, which is transcriptionally active and which is typically a developmental product of the amplification of the micronuclear or germ-line DNA. The micronucleus participates in conjugation, which is the sexual process of ciliates, and the third major feature to characterize this phylum. Ciliates as large cells are the top predators or heterotrophs in microbial food webs when metazoans are absent. As heterotrophs, they feed upon bacteria, smaller protists, and even other ciliates in ecosystems from the poles to the tropics and from terrestrial soils to the sediments around deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The genus Mesodinium includes the only “autotrophic” ciliate species, but many species are mixotrophic, capturing the chloroplasts of prey or hosting autotrophic protists as endosymbionts. Ciliates can also be symbionts of other organisms, ranging from commensals found in the stomachs of ruminants to parasites of fish. Ciliates, such as Tetrahymena and Paramecium, whose genomes have been sequenced, serve as model organisms for cell and molecular biology.

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  1. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, N1G 2W1, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Denis H. Lynn

  2. Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, 6270 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Denis H. Lynn

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    John M. Archibald

  2. Department of Biology Life Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Alastair G.B. Simpson

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Mole, Dalhousie University Department of Biochemistry and Mole, HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Canada

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  5. Biozentrum Köln, Universität zu Köln Biozentrum Köln, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

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  6. Dept. Ecology, Evolution, Marine Biology, University of California Dept. Ecology, Evolution, Marine Biology, Santa Barbara, California, USA

    David J. Chapman

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    John O. Corliss

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Lynn, D.H. (2016). Ciliophora. In: Archibald, J., et al. Handbook of the Protists. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32669-6_23-1

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