Paramecium multimicronucleatum - Video of the Contractile Vacuole Complex. Activity of the two parts of a dissected CV. Division and subsequent fusion of an in vitro CV extruded from a ruptured Paramecium cell. A microneedle is used to pinch the CV into two parts. Both CV parts will undergo rounding and relaxing but these cycles soon go out of phase with each other. When the microneedle is removed the two parts of the CV will again fuse and the single CV will continue to undergo rounding and relaxing. A DVD resolution version of this is available at CIL:10415.
Biological Process: Cellular water homeostasis
Author: Tomomi Tani & Richard Allen
Source: The Cell: An Image Library
