Abstract
Unicellular organisms commonly respond to mechanical stimuli impinging upon them. The resulting behavior is often conspicuous, such as cellular contraction or alteration in locomotion. Jennings (1899) detected that the large heterotrichous ciliates Spirostomum and Stentor have a highly mechanosensitive anterior cell end and a much less sensitive posterior end. Cells that were locally disturbed contracted immediately and then swam backward for a while. Unlocalized mechanical stimuli, such as jarring the culture dish, lead to similar responses. Later, it was detected in Paramecium that stimulation of the anterior cell end induced backward swimming, while posterior stimulation led the cell to accelerate the forward swimming mode (Jennings, 1906). Although the “avoiding reaction,” which is triggered by an anterior stimulus, became the hallmark of protozoan motor behavior, the topological differentiation in ciliate mechanosensitivity fell into oblivion, only to be rediscovered 60 years later.
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© 1985 Plenum Press, New York
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Machemer, H. (1985). Mechanoresponses in Protozoa. In: Colombetti, G., Lenci, F., Song, PS. (eds) Sensory Perception and Transduction in Aneural Organisms. NATO ASI Series, vol 89. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2497-3_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2497-3_12
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