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Orientation of Paramecium swimming in a DC magnetic field
Author(s) -
Nakaoka Yasuo,
Takeda Ryutaro,
Shimizu Kikuo
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.10059
Subject(s) - magnetic field , diamagnetism , paramecium , cilium , perpendicular , population , biology , biophysics , motile cilium , nuclear magnetic resonance , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , geometry , mathematics , environmental health , quantum mechanics
We found that a ciliated protozoan, Paramecium , swam perpendicular to a static (DC) magnetic field (0.68 T). The swimming orientation was similar even when the ionic current through the cell membrane disappeared after saponin treatment. To determine the diamagnetic anisotropy of intracellular organs, macronuclei, cilia, and secretory vesicles, trichocysts, were selectively isolated. Both cilia and trichocysts tended to align their long axis parallel to the magnetic field (0.78 T). Paramecium mutants that lack trichocysts also swam perpendicular to the magnetic field, although the proportion fraction was smaller than the normal population. Since large numbers of cilia and trichocysts are arranged at right angles to the long axis of the cell, the diamagnetic anisotropies of cilia and trichocysts cause the long axis of the cell to align perpendicular to the magnetic field. In contrast to the DC magnetic field, an alternative (AC) magnetic field (60 Hz, 0.65 T) had almost no effect on the swimming orientation of Paramecium . Bioelectromagnetics 23:607–613, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.