Single-Celled Organism Can Extend Neck 30 Times Its Body’s Length To Rapidly Attack Prey [Study]

A single-celled organism surprised researchers due to its unique ability to extend its neck multiple times the length of its body when scouting prey.

Single-Celled Protist Can Rapidly Extend Neck

In a new study, researchers discovered a single-celled protist called Lacrymaria olor that utilizes an origami-style pleated helix to unspool a neck-like protrusion up to 30 times its body length, or 1.2 millimeters, to grasp food rapidly. A person standing 1.7 meters tall could reach nearly halfway up the Statue of Liberty with their neck if they could do the same.

The creature's neck extends and retracts while it waves its bulbous dome back and forth in a snake-like manner. According to Stanford University biophysicist Eliott Flaum, its exceptional speed and capacity for repetition were among the factors that set Lacrymaria apart. Similar-reaching organisms move slowly or are incapable of undoing any extensions.

Vittorio Boscaro, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, claims that knowledge of L. olor's capacity to lengthen one's neck dates back more than a century.

According to Flaum, they frequently stop when encountering an oddity that defies explanation. It's good that studies are being published that genuinely attempt to explain how the bizarre event happens. The solution, in this instance, is reportedly pretty awesome.

Initially, they wondered how the creature could instantly expand and retract its neck. Stanford bioengineer Manu Prakash said there were times when they watched a video that begged the question of what had happened. However, they found it counterintuitive and were eager to find the answer.

Flaum and Prakesh used a combination of microscopy and live imaging to discover that the protist's lengthy proboscis is covered with long polymers called microtubules, which give the single-celled organism its structure. The protrusion has a helix formed around it by layers of microtubules.

Upon seeing the helical structure, the team wondered if it was a spring or a coil and what was happening within it. However, per Prakash, "it just kind of clicked." Apparently, L. olor's helical microtubules were folded like an origami.

Unlike a slinky or a finger trap toy, the geometry is similar to origami's. A fishing rod is the best example since it has two spools: one for holding fishing line and the other for tossing it into the water. Or if a bendy straw had twisted folds.

According to Cécile Sykes, a biophysicist at the CNRS and Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, the beginning of the unfolding is still unclear. The short, hair-like features on the cell's exterior may facilitate movement.

It's also unclear how L. olor's neck comes together when it recognizes food and feeds on algae.

What Is a Protist?

A protist is any one of a variety of unicellular, mostly eukaryotic tiny creatures. They might resemble plants, animals, or both in terms of morphology and physiology. Generally speaking, a eukaryote that is not a real animal, plant, or fungal is referred to as a protozoa, as is any eukaryote that does not have a multicellular stage.

Protist organization varies widely. Certain organisms are single-celled, whereas others are multicellular or syncytial (coenocytic; essentially a mass of cytoplasm). They could take the form of coenobia, filaments, or colonies.

Protists are not always tiny organisms. Large species can be found in some groups; among the brown algal protists, for instance, some species can grow up to 60 meters (197 feet) in length. However, the typical range of body length is 5 μm (0.0002 inch) to 2 or 3 mm (0.08 or 0.1 inch); a few free-living algal protists and some parasitic forms, such as malarial organisms, may only have a diameter, or length, of 1 μm.

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