Names: Group # 5 Date: September 12, 2021.

Leader: Zen-Ameer E. Serabani

Assistant: Tapia, Jerico .
Secretary: Tatel Dessy .
Facilitator: Ramos Edson .
Video Editor: Zarandona, Stephanie
Section:Adviser: Prof. Kay P. Ramos. Course/Section:BS Biology 3C.

Activity No. 3
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN
PARAMECIUM
INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this activity is to examine/research an example of a typical living

organism (Paramecium) and to correlate the function with the structures observed/
researched.
A. GROSS MORPHOLOGY and MOVEMENT
1. Draw the general shape of the Paramecium ? Describe its movement. Is it
rapid or slow?

The motion of Paramecium is rapid as their speed of motion is about four times
their own length per second. The movement of cilia is the primary mode of locomotion in
Paramecium. It has the ability to travel forward and backward. Cilia migrate from
anterior to posterior as they travel forward. Similarly, cilia aggressively migrate from
posterior to anterior during backward movement. Due to the existence of their
streamlined body, which allows them to swim in the water with the least amount of
friction, Paramecium are extremely fast swimmers. The cilia move in a wave-like pattern
known as metachronal rhythm. A metachronal rhythm, also known as a metachronal wave,
refers to wavy motions caused by the successive activity of cilia that give the impression
of a moving wave.
2. Draw a simplified outline of Paramecium and include in your diagram all the
parts you have researched online. Provide the Scientific name if necessary.

3. Differentiate which gave you the most information, the living organism, or the dead,
stained one? Based on your research. Provide the web site.

Based on my research, the stained one or the stained organism will gave you
the most information. The advantage of using stains to look at cells is that stains reveal
these details and more. A major advantage of using chemical stains is that the stain can
last indefinitely. Stains can do more than visualize cells in different colors; the darkness
or lightness of the color can be altered as well. This will give us even more information
about the cells or organism. Structure, functions and information go hand in hand,
according to a rule of thumb in physiology, which utilizes several stains. Most stains can
be used on fixed, or non-living cells, while only some can be used on living cells; some
stains can be used on either living or non-living cells. The most basic reason that cells and
organisms are stained is to enhance visualization of the cell or certain cellular
components.
B. DIGESTION in Paramecium

1. Describe the digestion of paramecium.

 In paramecium, food is digested in food vacuole by the digestive enzymes
released by the cytoplasm. Digestion in Paramecium is termed as “Intracellular
digestion” means the digestion of food occurs with in the cell. It occurs in
unicellular organisms.

2. Provide a concept Map of the flow of digestion of a paramecium.

The flow of digestion of a Paramecium

1. Food vacuoles first travel to posterior end, then takes a turn and travel anteriorly.
2. After reaching the anterior border of endoplasm they travel back and come to
middle of the body to complete their journey.
3. During their journey within the cytoplasm the food is digested.
4. Undigested residue of food is thrown out through the cytopyge or cell anus.

Explanation: The food vacuoles move in a definite course of circulation or cyclosis inside
the cytoplasm by its streaming movement. The food vacuoles first travel to the posterior
end, then takes a turn and travels anteriorly. After reaching the anterior border of
endoplasm they travel back and come to the middle of the body to complete their journey.
The colour of the contents of food vacuole gradually changes from green to yellow.
During their journey within the cytoplasm the food is digested by the lysosomal enzymes
in a manner similar to that in Amoeba. Undigested residue of food is thrown out through
the cytopyge or cell anus situated on the ventro-posterior surface. The cell anus is only
visible during the act of excrement.

C. THE REACTION of Paramecium to ELECTRICAL STIMULUS

Describe the electrical stimulus of a Paramecium

Due to the presence of a waves hair-like appendages called cilia that are essential
for the movement of the paramecium that are highly conserved for their sensory functions.
They serve the role as an antennae for extracellular information. Whether this cilia in the
paramecium can neither be motile or not, they can able to respond to environmental
mechanical and chemical stimuli that send signals to the cells body.The motility action of
these organisms requires numerous cilia on their surface which does a rhythmic bending
and recovery strokes. Generally, these information from extracellular stimuli is then
converted to electrical signals through the repertoire of ion-conducting channels in the
ciliary membrane resulting to the changes of the concentrations of ions, in the cilia. These
changes in turn affects the motility and the ability of the signaling pathways in the cilia
and cell body to carry on signal transduction. For such reasons, on basis on the coupling
and sensing functions of the cilia, these single-celled and free living protozoans known as
the paramecium that are covered with cilia, and other ciliates can able to respond to
chemical, mechanical, as well as to thermal and gravitational stimuli by way of
influencing the frequency of the ciliary beating in terms of its coordination and directions.
Due to the various stimuli, it increases the probability that a paramecium will give the
“avoiding reaction” that will back away from the stimulus and then swim forward to the
randomly chosen direction. Hence, movement in Paramecium is caused by the thousands
of cilia that beats in a coordinated way by which the swimming rate of this organisms e.g.
the paramecium primaurelia cells increase when the electric potentials were lower than
3.75 V/cm: to which at higher potentials it gradually decreased and stabalized.

Microorganism can be used to illustrate many reactions. One of the most

interesting of this is called electrotaxis, a reaction to an electrical stimulus.

Provide an example of how to examine electrical stimulus to a paramecium.

A glass slide was drawn to form a well about 4 cm in diameter using clear nail
polish. A 24-gauge wire was cut into two; 25 cm and 10 cm pieces. After having these
two cuts of wires, each end of these two wires had its insulation cut for about 1.5 cm.
These cut wires were connected to two 1.5 V battery in a linear fashion, having the
shorter 10 cm wire in between the two batteries. The lose ends of the connected wires
were then attached to the glass slide with adhesive tape. After which, five drops of the
Paramecium culture and five drops of Ringer’s solution were added into the glass slide’s
nail polish well. The wires (electrodes) were then put into the solution. The solution was
then observed under an electric compound microscope for Paramecium. After that, the
electrodes were then reversed, and it was observed as well. Table shows the response of
the paramecium to voltage.
Research on the following:
Table 1. Response of Paramecia to Voltages

Voltage Used Descriptions of Response

1.5 V Initial Position of Reversed Position of
Electrodes Electrodes
(-) <=Movement (+) (+) Movement => (-)

Galvanotaxis, or electrotaxis, is the directional movement of an organism in

response to an electrical stimulus. Studies on galvanotaxis of Paramecium indicate that
movement is caused by abrupt changes in ciliary beating patterns. Accordingly, ciliary
beating patterns are caused by changes in membrane potential of the organism due to
alterations in the ion gradients across the membrane. Galvanotaxis can best be explained
by Ludloff phenomenon. In a published paper by Ogawa et al. (2006), there are several
changes within the Paramecium that occur in the presence of an electrical stimulus. If an
anode were to be placed on the posterior side of a Paramecium and the cathode on the
anterior side, an electric field will be established between the electrodes and through the
Paramecium. This causes the cilia on the posterior end to beat more frequently.
Consequently, a force is generated which allows the cell to orient itself towards the
cathode. Since the Paramecium was attracted to the cathode or the negative electrode,
then the anterior end of the Paramecium must have been relatively positive. This implies
that a membrane depolarization occurred in the anterior end because of the electrical
stimulus, which led to its movement towards the cathode. This depolarization is caused
by influx of Ca2+ via the voltage dependent Ca2+ channels. Accordingly, if the cell
exhibits hyperpolarization, it will move towards the anode or the positive electrode that
was caused by the efflux of K+ via the voltage-dependent K+ channels. If the electrodes’
positions were reversed, it is expected that the cell will still move towards the cathode.

D. RESPONSE to GRAVITY and LIGHT

1. What is geotaxis?
 Geotaxis is the reaction of a free moving organism to gravity that can also refers
to the intriguing phenotype for example the paramecia, where it is completely
covered with cilia (fine hair like filaments) that beat rhythmically in propelling
that induces the preference of their movement away from the source of gravity or
towards the source of gravity, that means the movement is influenced by gravity.

2. Are the paramecia positively or negatively geotactic?

 Paramecia behaved negatively geotactic that based on the study of Karine
Guevorkian and James Valles which “Paramecia adapt their swimming to
changing gravitational force” published on 2006 in September, 18. As observed,
many single-celled organisms like these paramecia living in water always swims
harder in going up than going down just to keep from sinking. That is why these
two researchers tried to confirm the behavior of this single-celled organism if it is
positively geotactic or negatively geotactic by using the high-powered
electromagnet to increase the normal gravity effect up to 10 times. And as the
result the paramecium swam upward mightily to maintain its place in the water
column. And in conclusion to that, paramecium fights against the force to control
the excess movement of water into its body so that the contractile vacuole as its
water-storing organelle will only swell when it reaches its maximum size and
expel the water through an opening in the cell membrane to acquire the oxygen.
3. What is meant by Phototaxis? Are paramecia positively or negatively phototactic?
Provide your answer.

 A behavioral response of a cell or an organism characterized by the directional

movement of an organism in response to light and it can be whether positive taxis
(attraction) that the organism or a cell moves towards the source of stimulation or
negative taxis (repulsion) is when the organism or a cell moves away from the
source of stimulation. And as of paramecia in being positively phototactic or
negatively phototactic. Paramecia is negatively phototactic that it is not attracted
to light, however it needs light to become a catalyst in the ciliary activities that
helps them in moving or swimming because with that, the cell membrane can
absorb the radiation energy from the light.

Suggest any value to the organism of its particular response to light?

 The algae, these organism encompasses with chlorophyll that enables them to
grow and multiply by manufacturing their own food for them to survive in a way
of photosynthesis. Therefore they seek light to fulfill one of the basic needs or
constituent in generating their own food that is why they response to it.

E. RESPONSE to CONTACT
What is thigmotaxis?

Thigmotaxis is an organism's response to the stimulus of contact or touch, where

the direction of movement is determined by the direction from which the stimulus is
received. It may inhibit movement, causing the organism to come into close contact with
a surface. This response can be either positive or negative. An organism that is positively
thigmotactic will seek contact with other objects, while one that is negatively
thigmotactic will avoid contact.

2. Describe the reaction of a Paramecium to an obstacle.

Paramecium generally thrusts itself forward, traveling in a straight line through
the water. However, it is capable of changing its direction, if the paramecium comes
across an obstacle like when it comes in contact with a solid object or a predator; it stops
and reverses the beating of the cilia. This causes it to swim backward. It backs away from
the obstacle or the predator at an angle and starts off in a new direction. The paramecium
does this by reversing the direction in which its cilia beat. This results in stopping,
spinning or turning, after which point the paramecium resumes swimming forward. If
multiple avoidance reactions follow one another, it is possible for a paramecium to swim
backward, though not as smoothly as swimming forward. This process will continue until
the cell is able to negotiate its way around the obstruction. Movement of Paramecium
cells is caused by control of calcium ions inside the cell and membrane potentials.

F. RESPONSE to CHEMICALS

1. What is a chemotactic response ?

The chemotactic response, describes how bacteria process concentration

measurements to produce their behavioral run-biasing decisions. It has been measured
experimentally by monitoring the rotation of single flagella on bacteria stimulated by
instantaneous chemoattractant pulses.

G. CONTRACTILE VACOULES

1. Find a sample in the internet for the reaction or happenings of a

contractile vacuoles of paramecium. Show a graph with relation between
the salinity and vacuolar activity.
On the basis of the data the set-up 1 (Paramecium in Pond water), appeared that the number of
times that the contractile vacuole pump stayed the same from 1st to last minutes. Meanwhile, in
set-2 (Paramecium in solution A) the number of times went up after the 1 and a half recording 2
to 4 pumps per 30 seconds unlike to set-up 1 were it has the same rate of vacuole contraction to
obtain the same result as to pond water some salts are needed to be added for this will allow the
change in the water concentration to make it properties look exactly the same with the pond
water. Lastly, the set-up 3 (Paramecium in solution B) the number of times that the contractile
pumps went down, here to be able to restore vacuole contraction the same with set-up 1 with
pond water, more water is needed to be added that will cause it to dilute the solution to make it
more like a pond water that will lead the contractile vacuole to its normal states like in pond
water. This experimental obtained, were conducted with 3 different solutions: containing
accordingly as follows (containing 95%) water and various dissolved minerals), this was been
observed using (400x) of a microscope , were the students done it by 30 seconds interval time,
the number of times the contractile vacuole pumped water out of the cell and repeated the same
steps in the 3 set-up having different solution

REFERENCES:

Provide references here:

 Charles K.S. (1961) Animal Ecology. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs,

N. J., 468 p.
 O. Chisholm H. (1911) Chemotaxis. Encyclopedia Britannica. 6. 11th ed.
Cambridge University Press. p. 77
 Ludloff, K. (1895). Untersuchungenu¨ber den Galvanotropismus. Arch. Ges. Physiol.
59, 525–5
 Brette, R. (2021, June 7). Integrative neuroscience of paramecium, a "swimming neuron". eNeuro.
Retrieved September 11, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8208649/.
 https://www.sargentwelch.com/www.sargentwelch.com/images/Working_with_Proto
zoa.pdf
 https://sciencing.com/advantage-using-stains-look-cells-19317.html
 https://www.livescience.com/55178-paramecium.html
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-
sciences/paramecium
 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165249/
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