High resolution image of toxicysts, extrusive organelles, (sometimes called extrusomes in protistan lingo) in the proter (or anterior daughter) of a dividing cell. Toxicysts can be very long and are aligned along microtubular lamellae that extend from the cytopharynx. Extra myelin-like membrane can be seen bordering two of the three toxicysts shown. At the upper right is the fibrous cortex of Didinium with mucocysts, an extrusive organelle involved when cyst formation occurs. A digesting food vacuole is at the lower left. TEM taken on 5/20/69 by R. Allen with Philips 300 operating at 60kV. Neg. 6,370X. The raw film was scanned with a Nikon Coolscan 9000ED. This image is available for quantitative analysis. Standard glutaraldehyde fixation followed by osmium tetroxide, dehydrated in alcohol and embedded in an epoxy resin. Microtome sections prepared at approximately 75nm thickness. Additional information available at (http://www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu/allen/).
Biological Process: Feeding behavior, Exocyst assembly, Killing of cells of other organism
Author: Richard Allen
Source: The Cell: An Image Library
