2006Botanical Garden in Aobayama I

Soils from the L, H, and A layers were sampled from the Tohoku University Botanical Garden in Sendai. This is a video of an organism taken from the L layer on the soil surface, where there are freshly fallen leaves in their original shape and other organic debris. At first organisms could not be found in the newly collected soil, so the samples (including water) were left for one month and then observed.

Commentary by Prof. Yuji Tsukii, Hosei University
This organism is a ciliate that is too small to be identified. Its cell shape is uneven in the front, which is in contrast to Microthorax, whose cytostome (cell mouth) is located at the rear end of the cell, giving it an uneven appearance. From its shape, the ciliate in the video could be either Leptopharynx or Drepanomonas. In the photos that I have taken (see the links below), the Drepanomonas ciliates all exhibit a slightly elongated shape. On the other hand, the organism in this video has a rounder cell body, and in that point it looks more like Leptopharynx. However, some species of Drepanomonas have a more rounded cell body, so whether the cell is rounder or more elongated may not be critical in identifying this organism.

Drepanomonas has a smaller number of cilia that are individually distinguishable even when the organism is moving. On the other hand, the cilia of Leptopharynx are hard to see when the organism moves. In this video, the cilia can clearly be seen on the moving cell, which makes it more likely to be Drepanomonas.

http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Im.....

http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Im.....

http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Im.....

Sampling Date : 06 December 2006

Sampling Site : Tohoku University Botanical Garden in Aobayama  Google Map