Friday, January 6, 2017

Answer to Case 429

Answer: Acanthamoeba sp.
Shown here is a characteristic double-walled cyst and 2 less-easily visualized trophozoites. You can also see the background bacteria (Escherichia coli) which had been plated on the agar as a food source for the amebae. Florida Fan suggested that some creative editing would allow the trophozoite to be more easily seen, so here is my best shot:
Now that you know what to look for, I would encourage you to go back and look at the video again. If you watch closely, you can see subtle movements inside of the trophozoite with opening and closing of the contractile vacuole. Geeky parasite fun!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you Dr. Pritt for the editing. The trophozoites are now clear cut. I know that photographing live specimens are quite challenging, we do not have all the time as with a stay still subject, the bugs move and the focus changes, also the narrow depth of field does not show all the image plans we are used to see with our own eyes through the microscope.
We thank you for each piece of knowledge gathered.

Florida Fan