#acetabularia

[drhoz]

[lovecraftsgarden]

Acetabularia crenulata

Mermaid’s Wineglass

What’s really cool about these guys is that each little cap and stem is unicellular. So one shoot is ONE CELL. The nucleus sits in the rhizoid (the anchoring part of the organism) so that if the cell is decapitated, it can still function. 

In the 1930′s - 1950′s, Joachim Hämmerling experimented with various species of Acetabularia. He found that if he grafted a cap from A. crenulata onto the base of A. mediterranea, and vise versa, the cap would change to match that of the base it was grafted on to. In this way, Hämmerling is responsible for proving that the nucleus of the cell contains the genetic information necessary for cellular development.

Here’s a nice write up concerning Hämmerling’s work.

[drhoz]

[biologieyvesmuller]

🔬 Nouveau short en ligne !

Une cellule unique peut-elle atteindre plusieurs centimètres de longueur et devenir un modèle d’étude incontournable pour les biologistes ?

Dans ce nouvel épisode des « Secrets du vivant », pars à la découverte de l’ombrelle de mer (Acetabularia acetabulum), une algue unicellulaire aussi élégante que fascinante. Derrière son apparente simplicité se cache une histoire scientifique qui a contribué à façonner notre compréhension du fonctionnement des cellules.

👉 https://youtube.com/shorts/UZePEN2zdts

[drhoz]

[drhoz]

#1374 - Acetabularia sp. - Mermaid’s Wineglass

Most likely Acetabularia caliculus. AKA Umbrella Alga

Spotted by Frances Hammond while they were snorkeling at Woodman Point. I was excessively excited to see the photo, since I didn’t know Acetabularia even grew around here. It’s most common in tropical seas, but extends into warm temperate areas as well, which explains why we have it this far south.

It might not look like much, since each stem is only 3 or 4 cm long, but the fascinating thing about it is that each thallus is a single cell, with the nucleus down in the rhizoid. That makes it a wonderful test subject for studies of cell biology, and from the 1930s–1950s Joachim Hämmerling’s experiments proved that Acetabularia's genetic information is contained in the nucleus. This was the first demonstration that genes are encoded by DNA in eukaryotes.

[rad-aquascapes]

New friends? My turbo snail has some mermaids wineglass growing on him!

[recipeforanartplease-blog]

Mermaid's Wine Glass (Acetabularia)