Ref ID : 4771
O. Roger Anderson; Some Observations of Feeding Behavior, Growth, and Test Particle Morphology of a Silica-secreting Testate Amoebae Netzelia tuberculata (Wallich) (Rhizopoda, Testacea) Grown in Laboratory Culture. Arch.Protistenk 137:211-221, 1989
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Netzelia tuberculata (Wallich) fed with lyophilized yeast in laboratory culture grows more rapidly (mean doubling time 1.7 days) and produces siliceous test particles that are more smooth, spheroidal and regularly arranged than those fed with Spirogyra (mean doubling time 3.1 days). The change in test particle morphology is observable during test secretion of the daughter cell in the first generation after transfer into a yeast medium. Successive generations exhibit increasingly more smooth and regularly arranged spheroidal test particles. N. tuberculata grown in a medium containing only soluble silicate (21 µM sodium silicate) reproduced and secreted siliceous test particles. Hence, a particulate source of silicate is not necessary for test particle synthesis. These results give further evidence of the ecophenotypic variation in test particle morphology of Netzelia tuberculata, in this case induced by variations in kind of food, and suggest that additional research is warranted on the cellular processes that determine the morphology of biomineralized products in these testate amoebae.