We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
How to build single‐celled cnidarians with worm‐like motility: Lessons from Myxozoa.
- Authors
Adriano, Edson A.; Zatti, Suellen A.; Okamura, Beth
- Abstract
Metazoans with worm‐like morphologies across diverse and disparate groups typically demonstrate motility generated by hydrostatic skeletons involving tissue layers (muscles and epithelia). Here we present representative morphological, behavioural and molecular data for parasitic cnidarians (myxozoans) that demonstrate unprecedented variation in form and function, developing as cellular hydrostats. Motile elongate plasmodia characterise a remarkable radiation of species in the genus Ceratomyxa. The vermiform plasmodia inhabit gall bladders of a range of South American freshwater fish and exhibit undulatory motility reminiscent of nematodes but achieved at the cellular level. Collective insights from ultrastructure, confocal and light microscopy along with videos depicting movements highlight key features that we propose explain the unique motility of the plasmodia. These features include cytoskeletal elements (net forming microfilaments and microtubules), a large internal vacuole, a relatively rigid outer glycocalyx and peripherally arranged mitochondria. These constituents provide collective evidence for repurposing of the cnidarian epitheliomuscular cell to support worm‐like motility at the cellular level. The apparent restriction of vermiform ceratomyxids to South American freshwaters suggests an origination via Cretaceous or Miocene marine transgressions and subsequent radiation.
- Subjects
MYXOZOA; GALLBLADDER; MARINE transgression; MICROSCOPY; VIDEO microscopy; CNIDARIA
- Publication
Journal of Anatomy, 2022, Vol 240, Issue 3, p475
- ISSN
0021-8782
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/joa.13566