Bending (nematode-like) movement in ancestral apicomplexans represented by marine archigregarine Selenidium sp.
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | regarines represent one of the ancestral lineages of apicomplexans widely dispersed in invertebrate hosts. Archigregarines are found exclusively in marine environment. Based on their pleomorphic characters, archigregarines are inferred to be the representatives of most ancestral gregarines and perhaps apicomplexans as whole. The intestinal trophozoites of Selenidium species are morphologically similar to the infective apicomplexan zoites and hence are often termed as hyperzoites. Vermiform trophozoites are covered with a cortex organised into shallow longitudinally running folds separated by grooves. Under the pellicle, one or more layers of subpellicular microtubules are localised, which are supposed to have important role on Selenidium spp. movement. The bending (nematode-like) motility of archigregarine Selenidium sp. from marine polychaete Pygospio elegans Claparede, 1863, was studied throughout the experiments with drugs influencing depolymerisation/repolymerisation of the main cytoskeletal proteins: actin (jasplakinolide and cytochalasin D) and tubulin (colchicine and oryzalin). As was previously demonstrated by our light and confocal laser scanning microscopic (CLSM) observations, the differences in presence and distribution of subpellicular microtubules were also monitored using the transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Drug-treated archigregarines displayed changes in their movement mode resulting in motility cessation in a relatively short time period after treatment with microtubule depolymerising probes. These changes in motility correlated with fading or complete loss of a number of subpellicular microtubules. In contrast, in control archigregarines incubated close to natural environment (seawater), the outermost microtubules were presented as continuous layer and the motility showed typical pattern. |
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