Microbe identification help please.

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Thomas Ashcraft
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Microbe identification help please.

Post by Thomas Ashcraft »

Hi.

I am unable to identify this particular microbe collected from my rain barrel in north central New Mexico. I have been through all the specimen images at the fine micro*scope website repository and there are a few candidates but without motion and behaviour characteristics the id has been unsuccessful so far. Here is a pic extracted from a movie and I have posted three short movie clips at the website below.

Image

1000x brightfield ( image extracted from Logitech webcam)

Please see webpage with short movie clips in DivX format:

http://www.heliotown.com/Unidentified_microbes.html

Thanks for any help! - Tom

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Sorry I can not help you Tom. :( At 1000X it is still pretty small. However it does remind me of the flagellate Distigma proteus for some reason. :-k
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bernhardinho
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Post by bernhardinho »

Hi Thomas and Ken,

well, Distigma might be close, Astasia even closer. Look here:

http://cyclot.hp.infoseek.co.jp/benmou/asta1x.html

Bernhard

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Could be Astasia spp. but Jahns pg. 82, references the organism to be anywhere from 50-60um. At 1000X this organism is still pretty small but I would not rule anything out as to its identity. Jahns also states that Astasia is a parasite of other protozoa. :)
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bernhardinho
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Post by bernhardinho »

Hi Ken,

Are you talking about the book " How to know the protozoa" by Jahn? 'cause in that book I find something on Astasia on p. 71 only. It states the presence of bluish green paramylum and I don't see hints that the genus in general lives as parasites of protozoans only. I also found an image on a french site by Walter Dioni:
http://www.microscopies.com/DOSSIERS/Ma ... GALA-2.htm


I find it very close

Bernhard

Thomas Ashcraft
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Post by Thomas Ashcraft »

Hi Bernhard and Ken,

Thanks for putting me on the right track. I think it is Astasia. I googled Astasia and came up with a couple of movies and some further information.
http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/Movies/MDB1/0001/D/025.mov

In this movie the specimen sort of cortorts and I saw my specimen do this motion exactly.

Also, here is a description from the micro*scope website.

"Astasia (a-stays-ee-a) is a colourless euglenid, probably having derived from a lineage with plastids. With one emergent flagellum (by which it can be distinguished from Distigma which is similar but has two emergent flagella....... Flagellum with whiplash beat (loops are flicked along the length of the flagellum, and in swimming cells these tend to be directed towards the rear so that the cell swims forward following a spiral path."

http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... imageid=80

Tom

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Post by rjlittlefield »

bernhardinho wrote:Hi Ken,

Are you talking about the book " How to know the protozoa" by Jahn? 'cause in that book I find something on Astasia on p. 71 only.
My copy of that book also has Astasia only on p.71. But I have the 1949 edition. Amazon says there is also a 1970 edition. Perhaps that's what Ken has?

On the other hand, I'm not sure I believe Amazon. They quote the same page count for 1970 as for my 1949, and there are some other quirks about the posting.

Ken, exactly what book are you using?

--Rik
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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Hi Guys :D

I am using Jahns Second Edition, spiral bound, copyright 1949 by H. E. Jaques LCCCN 78-52716 Mc Graw/Hill publishers. Same copyright as everyone else, just maybe a newer edition (1970 perhaps). A. dangeardi, 50-60um fig. 121 pg. 82. I have no reference to Astasia spp. on page 71. :)
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bernhardinho
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Post by bernhardinho »

Hi folks,

Oh these publishers! That's really useful isn't it? My copy is 1949 by H.E.Jaques , but LCCCN A51-3425, Revised edition, WM.C. Brown Company Publishers. Fig.121 is on page 81 and shows Polytomella agilis. So the various editions seem to be completely different. I wonder who messed that up!!

Bernhard

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Post by rjlittlefield »

Weird!

My LCCN is the same as Bernhard's, and I've got Fig.121 on pg.81 showing P.agilis.

Mine shows "T.L.Jahn" on the cover and "Theodore Louis Jahn, M.Sc., Ph.D. and Frances Floed Jahn, M.Sc." on the title page.

Oddly enough it says "Copyright 1949 by H.E. Jaques" -- not by Wm.C.Brown Company as I would have expected.

Anybody know how come Jaques has the copyright, though Jahn wrote it and Brown published it?

--Rik
Reworks and reposts of my images in this forum are always welcome, as are constructive critiques.

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Maybe that he, Jaques, purchased the copyright, dunno. I also have along with Jahn(s) Eugene C. Bovee on the title page. However as I remarked, mine is the second edition. Also mine has a section covering myxcomycota or myxomycetes. :)
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Kenneth Ramos
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