portrait, nucleus
Echinamoeba (eck-eye-na-mee-ba), a genus of free-living amoebae believed to be related to Acanthamoeba. With a hyaline region from which emerge fine sub-pseudopodia. Nucleus with nucleolus and condensed heterochromatin on the inside face of the nuclear envelope evident at the base of the hyaline zone. The clear posterior vacuoles all fuse to form the contractile vacuole. Posteriorly with filaments which make up the uroid. Phase contrast. This picture was taken by David Patterson, Linda Amaral Zettler, Mike Peglar and Tom Nerad from cultures and other materials maintained at the American Type Culture Collection during 2001. Image copyright: D. J. Patterson, L Amaral-Zettler, M. Peglar and T. Nerad, image used under license to MBL (micro*scope).
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Echinamoeba
From the collection
American Type Culture Collection
| Description of Echinamoeba: These small amoebae are usually triangular, fan-shaped or elongate in outline during locomotion. Locomotive cell small, around 12 µm, usually triangular, fan-shaped or elongate. With a few short spiny pseudopodia (echinopodia up to 1.5 µm long) extending from the hyaline region. Single nucleus. Cysts smooth and spherical. Thin cyst wall with a narrow space between the outer and inner layers, although one species has cysts without layers. Type species: E. exudans (Page, 1967). Like Acanthamoeba, they appear spiny, however, the fine subpseudopodia (echinopodia) that extend from the cell margin are smaller, about 1.5 um in length. The anterior leading edge of the advancing cell is irregular. The single nucleus, with a central nucleolus, is small. Care should be taken to distinguish this genus from other spiny amoebae with short subpseudopodia - they include the genera Filamoeba, Comandonia and Stachyamoeba. |
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