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INGENIOUS MICROBES THAT BUILD THEIR OWN HOMESHere are two amoebae that make their own homes. On the left is Difflugia, an attractive little amoeba with fine pseudopodia that makes an instantly-recognisable shell out of tiny grains of sand. How it selects and retrieves them remains a complete mystery, and the sheer manipulative ability of this tiny cell is something that nobody can comprehend. I’ve drawn this specimen of Difflugia, but (right) here is an actual amoeba shell photographed by my much admired colleague, Dr Hilda Canter-Lund, to show what the results really look like. Different species of amoebae always choose specific building materials, and this shell is built of tiny diatom frustules (diatoms are algae that secrete a glass-like inner skeleton, the frustules, which remain after the cell has died). Let’s face it, if I made a shell like that in evening classes, or built a stone wall in a similar fashion, you’d be pretty impressed. Quite right too . . . yet here I am presenting clever microbes that can do it as well. |
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