PARAMECIUM

Classification, Structure, Function and Characteristics

Paramecium is a unicellular organism with a shape resembling the sole of a shoe. It ranges from 50 to 300um in size
which varies from species to species. It is mostly found in a freshwater environment.

It is a single-celled eukaryote belonging to kingdom Protista and is a well-known genus of ciliate protozoa.

As well, it belongs to the phylum Ciliophora. Its whole body is covered with small hair-like filaments called the cilia
which helps in locomotion. There is also a deep oral groove containing not so clear oral cilia. The main function of this
cilia is to help both in locomotion as well as dragging the food to its oral cavity.

Classification of Paramecium

Paramecium can be classified into the following phylum and sub-phylum based on their certain characteristics.

• Phylum Protozoa
• Sub-Phylum Ciliophora
• Class Ciliates
• Order Hymenostomatida
• Genus Paramecium
• Species Caudatum

Being a well-known ciliate protozoan, paramecium exhibits a high-level cellular differentiation containing several
complex organelles performing a specific function to make its survival possible.

Besides a highly specialized structure, it also has a complex reproductive activity. Out of the 10 total species of
Paramecium, the most common two are P.aurelia and P.caudatum.

Structure and Function

1. Shape and Size

P. cadatum is a microscopic, unicellular protozoan. Its size ranges from 170 to 290um or up to 300 to 350um.
Surprisingly, paramecium is visible to the naked eye and has an elongated slipper like shape, that’s the reason it’s
also referred to as a slipper animalcule.

The posterior end of the body is pointed, thick and cone-like while the anterior part is broad and blunt. The widest part
of the body is below the middle. The body of a paramecium is asymmetrical. It has a well-defined ventral or oral surface
and has a convex aboral or dorsal body surface.

2. Pellicle

Its whole body is covered with a flexible, thin and firm membrane called pellicles. These pellicles are elastic in nature
which supports the cell membrane. It's made up of a gelatinous substance.

3. Cilia

Cilia refers to the multiple, small hair-like projections that cover the whole body. It is arranged in longitudinal rows with
a uniform length throughout the body of the animal. This condition is called holotrichous. There are also a few longer
cilia present at the posterior end of the body forming a caudal tuft of cilia, thus named caudatum.
The structure of cilia is the same as flagella, a sheath made of protoplast or plasma membrane with longitudinal nine
fibrils in the form of a ring. The outer fibrils are much thicker than the inner ones with each cilium arising from a basal
granule. Cilia have a diameter of 0.2um and helps in its locomotion.

4. Cytostome

It contains the following parts:

• Oral groove: There is a large oblique shallow depression on the ventrio-lateral side of the body called peristome
or an oral grove. This oral groove gives an asymmetrical appearance to the animal. It further extends into a
depression called a vestibule through a short conical funnel. This vestibule further extends into the cytostome
through an oval-shaped opening, through a long opening called a cytopharynx and then the esophagus leads
to the food vacuole.
• Cytopyge: Lying on the ventral surface, just behind the cytostome is the cytopyge also called a cytoproct. All
the undigested food gets eliminated through the cytopyge.
• Cytoplasm: Cytoplasm is a jelly-like substance further differentiated into the ectoplasm. The ectoplasm is a
narrow peripheral layer. It is a dense and clear layer with an inner mass of endoplasm or semifluid plasmasol
that is granular in shape.
• Ectoplasm: Ectoplasm forms a thin, dense and clear outer layer containing cilia, trichocysts, and fibrillar
structures. This ectoplasm is further bound to pellicle externally through a covering.
• Endoplasm: Endoplasm is one of the most detailed parts of the cytoplasm. It contains several different
granules. It contains different inclusions and structures like vacuoles, mitochondria, nuclei, food vacuole,
contractile vacuole etc.
• Trichocysts: Embedded in the cytoplasm are small spindle-like bodies called trichocysts. Trichocysts are filled
with a dense refractive fluid containing swelled substances. There is a conical head on the spike at the outer
end. Trichocysts are perpendicular to the ectoplasm.

5. Nucleus

The nucleus further consists of a macronucleus and a micronucleus.

• Macro Nucleus: Macronucleus is kidney like or ellipsoidal in shape. It's densely packed within the DNA
(chromatin granules). The macronucleus controls all the vegetative functions of paramecium hence called the
vegetative nucleus.
• Micro Nucleus: The micronucleus is found close to the macronucleus. It is a small and compact structure,
spherical in shape. The fine chromatin threads and granules are uniformly distributed throughout the cell and
control reproduction of the cell. The number in a cell varies from species to species. There is no nucleolus
present in caudatum

6. Vacuole

Paramecium consists of two types of vacuoles: contractile vacuole and food vacuole.

• Contractile vacuole: There are two contractile vacuoles present close to the dorsal side, one on each end of
the body. They are filled with fluids and are present at fixed positions between the endoplasm and ectoplasm.
They disappear periodically and hence are called temporary organs. Each contractile vacuole is connected to
at least five to twelve radical canals. These radical canals consist of a long ampulla, a terminal part and an
injector canal which is short in size and opens directly into the contractile vacuole. These canals pour all the
liquid collected from the whole body of paramecium into the contractile vacuole which makes the vacuole
increase in size. This liquid is discharged to the outside through a permanent pore. The contraction of both
the contractile vacuoles is irregular. The posterior contractile vacuole is close to the cytopharynx and hence
contract more quickly because of more water passing through. Some of the main functions of contractile
vacuoles include osmoregulation, excretion, and respiration.
• Food vacuole: Food vacuole is non-contractile and is roughly spherical in shape. In the endoplasm, the size of
food vacuole varies and digest food particles, enzymes alongside a small amount of fluid and bacteria. These
food vacuoles are associated with the digestive granules that aid in food digestion.
Characteristics

1. Habit and Habitat

Paramecium has a worldwide distribution and is a free-living organism. It usually lives in the stagnant water of pools,
lakes, ditches, ponds, freshwater and slow flowing water that is rich in decaying organic matter.

2. Movement and Feeding

Its outer body is covered by the tiny hair-like structures called cilia. These cilia are in constant motion and help it move
with a speed that is four times its body’s length per second. Just as the organism moves forward, rotating around its
own axis, this further helps it to push the food into the gullet. By reversing the motion of cilia, paramecium can move
in the reverse direction as well.

Through a process known as phagocytosis, the food is pushed into the gullet through cilia which further goes into the
food vacuoles.

The food is digested with the help of certain enzymes and hydrochloric acid. Once the digestion is completed the rest
of the food content is quickly emptied into cytoproct also known as the pellicles.

The water absorbed from the surroundings through osmosis is continuously expelled from the body with the help of
the contractile vacuoles present on either end of the cell. P. bursaria is one of the species which forms a symbiotic
relationship with photosynthetic algae.

In this case, the paramecium provides a safe habitat for the algae to grow and live in its own cytoplasm, however, in
return the paramecium might use this algae as a source of nutrition in case there is a scarcity of food in the
surroundings.

Paramecium also feeds on other microorganisms like yeasts and bacteria. To gather the food it makes use of its cilia,
making quick movements with cilia to draw the water along with its prey organisms inside the mouth opening through
its oral groove.

The food further passes into the gullet through the mouth. Once there is enough food accumulated a vacuole is formed
inside the cytoplasm, circulating through the cell with enzymes entering the vacuole through the cytoplasm to digest
the food material.

Once the digestion is completed the vacuole starts to shrink and the digested nutrients enter into the cytoplasm. Once
the vacuole reaches the anal pore with all of its digested nutrients it ruptures and expels all of its waste material into
the environment.

Nutrition

Paramecium is a tiny unicellular organism found in water. It follows holozoic mode of nutrition.
• Ingestion -- Paramecium engulfs food by the use of cilia. Cilia is a hair like structure present on surface on
body of paramecium. Food is ingested by cilia through oral groove into gullet. The food is ingested with a little
surrounding water to form a food vacuole
• Digestion -- In Paramecium, food is digested in food vacuole by the digestive enzymes released by cytoplasm.
Digestion in Paramecium is termed as intracellular digestion.
• Absorption -- The digested food present in the food vacuole of Paramecium is absorbed directly into the
cytoplasm by diffusion. After absorption of food, the food vacuole shrinks.
• Assimilation -- The absorbed food nutrients is stored and utilized later for synthesis of energy.
• Egestion -- The undigested food is expelled out through anal pore.
THE FOOD-VACUOLE IN PARAMECIUM

1. The feeding apparatus in Paramecium consists of a shallow ciliated groove, a ciliated tube which leads into the
body, and a bundle Of fibers (esophageal fibers) which extend from the tube nearly to the posterior end of the body.
The tube is composed of an outer part (the vestibulum) and an inner part (the pharynx).

2. Paramecia ingest all sorts of small particles, but more digestible than indigestible ones. Selection takes place in
the vestibulum and the proximal end of the pharynx.

3. In forming a food-vacuole, the cilia in the pharynx force fluid with particles in suspension against the membrane
over the distal opening of the pharynx, producing a sac, the esophageal sac.

4. As the esophageal sac enlarges, the particles in suspension in it become greatly concentrated, owing largely, if not
entirely, to the passage of water out through the membrane into the cytoplasm.

5. A portion of this sac is constricted, as a food-vacuole, probably by the action of the esophageal fibers.

6. The initiation of the constriction of the sac is probably due to periodicity in the constrictive action of the fibers, the
size of the sac, and the composition of its contents.

7. There is much variability in the size of the food-vacuoles. This is correlated with the quantity and the quality of the
particles in the surrounding fluid, the chemical composition of this fluid, the rate of ingestion, the rate of loss of water
from the esophageal sac, and the length of the intervals between consecutive constrictions of the esophageal fibers.
The frequency of formation of food-vacuoles is correlated with the quantity and the quality of the particles in the
surrounding fluid and the acidity, and the temperature of this fluid. The shape of the food-vacuoles depends largely,
if not entirely, upon the viscosity of their content.

8. After the food-vacuole has left the pharynx it passes rapidly on a fixed course toward the posterior end of the body,
and slowly on a varied course to the anus. The former is probably due to the action of the esophageal fibers; the latter
is due to cyclosis.

9. On its course through the body, the food-vacuole usually decreases greatly in size, and the acidity of its content
increases greatly; then it enlarges very rapidly and the acidity of its content decreases greatly. The extent of these
changes varies enormously. Under some conditions there are no perceptible changes; under others the acidity in some
vacuoles increases to a maximum at least as high as pH 1.4 and then decreases approximately to pH 7.8.

10. There is no "preliminary alkaline phase" of the food-vacuole.

11. The change in acidity is definitely correlated with change in size. The changes in size are due to difference between
internal and external osmotic concentration and the action of the stretched vacuolar membrane. The increase in
acidity is probably due to secretion of acid by the cytoplasm adjoining the vestibulum and the pharynx and to
impermeability of the vacuolar membrane to hydrogen-ions, and loss of water. The decrease in acidity is due to
entrance of alkaline fluid from the cytoplasm.

12. The increase in acidity probably causes hydrolysis and thereby increase in osmotic concentration resulting in inflow
of fluid containing digestive enzymes.

13. Death of ingested living organisms is probably largely due to toxic substance produced by the pharynx and
concentrated in the food-vacuole, owing to impermeability, of the vacuolar membrane to it, and loss of water.

14. Paramecia digest protein, fat, and starch. Digestion takes place during the alkaline phase of the food-vacuole. The
enzymes involved originate in the cytoplasm and are carried into the food-vacuole by the cytoplasmic fluid which enters
during its rapid enlargement.

15. The neutral-red granules and the mitochondria are probably not involved in digestion.
16. All these phenomena are essentially the same in the four species studied, namely P. caudatum, P. nucleatum, P.
aurelia, and P. trichium.

3. Symbiosis

Symbiosis refers to the mutual relationship between two organisms to benefit from each other. Some species of
paramecium including P. bursaria and P. chlorelligerum form a symbiotic relationship with green algae from which
they not only take food and nutrients when needed but also some protection from certain predators like Didinium
nasutum.

There has been a lot of endosymbioses reported between the green algae and paramecium with an example being
that of the bacteria named Kappa particles giving paramecium the power to kill other paramecium strains which lack
this bacteria.

4. Reproduction

Just like all the other ciliates, paramecium also consists of one or more diploid micronuclei and a polypoid
macronucleus hence containing a dual nuclear apparatus.

The function of the micronucleus is to maintain the genetic stability and making sure that the desirable genes are
passed to the next generation. It is also called the germline or generative nucleus.

The macronucleus plays a role in non-reproductive cell functions including the expression of genes needed for the
everyday functioning of the cell.

Paramecium reproduces asexually through binary fission. The micronuclei during reproduction undergo mitosis while
the macronuclei divide through amitosis. Each new cell, in the end, contains a copy of macronuclei and micronuclei
after the cell undergoes a transverse division. Reproduction through binary fission may occur spontaneously.

It may also undergo autogamy (self-fertilization) under certain conditions. It may also follow a sexual reproduction
process in which there is an exchange of genetic material because of mating between two paramecia who are
compatible for mating through a temporary fusion.

There is a meiotic division of the micronuclei during the conjugation which results in haploid gametes and is further
passed on from cell to cell. The old macronuclei are destroyed and formation of a diploid micronuclei takes place
when gametes of two organisms fuse together.

Paramecium reproduces through conjugation and autogamy when conditions are not favorable and there is a scarcity
of food.

Behaviour of Paramecium:

Paramoecium, when it comes in contact with a solid object, recedes back and changing its course runs again till it can
avoid the obstacle in its forward path. This is effected by a series of trial and error experiments. It is always kept
informed about its environment by taking a sample of water in its oral groove and ejecting out the same. Any change
of condition is thereby constantly and carefully noted.

The animal avoids injurious environment and by repeated efforts brings itself to a suitable position. Even food is
rejected when there is no hunger. When hungry it roams about aimlessly in search of food. When violently stimulated
by chemicals or an injurious enemy, the Paramoecium responds by throwing out trichocysts, which forms an effective
barrier round the animal and protects it.