Nutrition, Growth, and Respiration

Abstract

While the exact nutritional requirements for Paramecium have been discovered, as described in Chapter 4, in nature the nutritional needs must be met by food obtained from the environment. Bacteria of different kinds are the chief food source, but not all species of bacteria support growth of Paramecium. Paramecia also ingest other living microorganisms, including yeast cells, unicellular algae, and flagellates, and many kinds of nonliving organic and inorganic digestible and indigestible substances such as milk powder, starch grains, carmine, talc, Chinese ink, and powdered charcoal. The early reports in the literature bearing on the materials ingested by paramecia are extensive (see Wichterman, 1953b).