Licensing

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike:This image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial Share Alike License. View License Deed | View Legal Code

*CIL – Cell Image Library accession number. Please use this to reference an image.

CIL:11968^* Cite

Description

The movie shows the rhythmic movement of the termite flagellate Pyrsonympha, a symbiont that lives in the hindgut. The motile structure is a complex of ~2,000 aligned microtubules, the axostyle which is highly birefringent and hence readily seen with polarizing microscopy. The movement is thought to be brought about by an ordered wave-like sliding between adjacent microtubules.

Technical Details

See: G.M. Langford and S. Inoue 1979. Motility of the microtubular axostyle in Pyrsonympha. J. Cell Biol 80:521-538.

Biological Sources

NCBI Organism Classification: uncultured Pyrsonympha sp.
Cellular Component: axostyle; microtubule

Biological Context

Biological Process

Attribution

Names: Shinya Inoue
Published: S. Inoue 2008 Collected Works of Shinya Inoue. World Scientific Publishing Company, Singapore, Hackensack, NJ, USA

Citation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi:10.7295/W9CIL11968
Archival Resource Key (ARK): ark:/b7295/w9cil11968

Imaging

Image Type: recorded image
Image Mode: polarization microscopy
Parameters Imaged: retardance
Source of Contrast: form birefringence
Visualization Methods: visualization of contiguous regions
Data Qualifiers: processed data

Sample Preparation

Methods: living tissue
Relation To Intact Cell: whole mounted tissue

Dimensions

Spatial Axis	Image Size	Pixel Size
X	704px	——
Y	480px	——