Stentor coeruleus

Stentor coeruleus is a protist in the family Stentoridae which is characterized by being a very large ciliate that measures 0.5 to 2 millimetres when fully extended.

Stentor coeruleus
Scientific classification
Clade: SAR
Infrakingdom: Alveolata
Phylum: Ciliophora
Class: Heterotrichea
Order: Heterotrichida
Family: Stentoridae
Genus: Stentor
Species:
S. coeruleus
Binomial name
Stentor coeruleus
Ehrenberg, 1830[1]

Stentor coeruleus specifically appears as a very large trumpet. It contains a macronucleus that looks like a string of beads that are contained within a ciliate that is blue to blue-green in color. It has the ability to contract into a ball through the contraction of its many myonemes. It has the ability to swim while both fully extended or contracted.[2]

Stentor coeruleus is known for its regenerative abilities.[3] When this organism is cut in half, each half is able to regenerate a half-sized cell that has its normal anatomy and will look the same way it did prior to being cut.[4] It feeds by means of cilia that carry food into the gullet.

DNA

The genetic code is the "universal" code, and not the usual form for ciliates. The introns are unusually small, only 15 or 16 nucleotides long.[5]

Reproduction

S. coeruleus are capable of sexual reproduction, or conjugation, but primarily reproduce asexually by binary fission.[6]

References
  1. "Protist Images: Stentor coeruleus". Protist.i.hosei.ac.jp. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  2. Rotkiewicz, Piotr. "Stentor - Droplet Photo Gallery". Droplet - Microscopy of the Protozoa.
  3. Sood, Pranidhi; McGillivary, Rebecca; Marshall, Wallace F. (2017-12-29). "The Transcriptional Program of Regeneration in the Giant Single Cell, Stentor coeruleus". bioRxiv: 240788. doi:10.1101/240788. S2CID 89792744.
  4. Slabodnick, Mark M.; Marshall, Wallace F. (2014-09-08). "Stentor coeruleus". Current Biology. 24 (17): R783–R784. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.06.044. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 5036449. PMID 25202864.
  5. Slabodnick MM, Ruby JG, Reiff SB, Swart EC, Gosai S, Prabakaran S, Witkowska E, Larue GE, Fisher S, Freeman RM Jr, Gunawardena J, Chu W, Stover NA, Gregory BD, Nowacki M, Derisi J, Roy SW, Marshall WF, Sood P (2017). "The Macronuclear Genome of Stentor coeruleus Reveals Tiny Introns in a Giant Cell". Current Biology. 27 (4): 569–575. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.057. PMC 5659724. PMID 28190732.
  6. "Stentor - microbewiki". Microbewiki.kenyon.edu. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
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