Ciliate research: From myth to trendsetting science.

This special issue of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology (JEM) summarizes achievements obtained by generations of researchers with ciliates in widely different disciplines. In fact, ciliates range among the first cells seen under the microscope centuries ago. Their beauty made them an object of scientia amabilis, and their manifold reactions made them attractive for college experiments and finally challenged causal analyses at the cellular level.

Membrane traffic and Ca signals in ciliates.

A Paramecium cell has as many types of membrane interactions as mammalian cells, as established with monoclonal antibodies by R. Allen and A. Fok.

Renal Volume Loss During Partial Nephrectomy Due to Resected Healthy Parenchyma: A Tool for Quick Estimation.

Our objective is to evaluate a technique for estimating the amount of healthy margin resected during partial nephrectomy (PN). The resected healthy margin volume was determined by planimetry (gold standard), which was performed in a prospective manner on 30 freshly resected renal masses by cross-sectional slicing every ∼5 mm. A single cross-sectional slice containing the largest tumor diameter (bivalved tumor) was chosen to build a model for estimating the amount of healthy kidney removed.

The remembrance of the things past: Conserved signalling pathways link protozoa to mammalian nervous system.

The aim of the present article is to analyse the evolutionary links between protozoa and neuronal and neurosecretory cells. To this effect we employ functional and topological data available for ciliates, in particular for Paramecium. Of note, much less data are available for choanoflagellates, the progenitors of metazoans, which currently are in the focus of metazoan genomic data mining.

Evolutionary Cell Biology of Proteins from Protists to Humans and Plants.

During evolution, the cell as a fine-tuned machine had to undergo permanent adjustments to match changes in its environment, while "closed for repair work" was not possible. Evolution from protists (protozoa and unicellular algae) to multicellular organisms may have occurred in basically two lineages, Unikonta and Bikonta, culminating in mammals and angiosperms (flowering plants), respectively. Unicellular models for unikont evolution are myxamoebae (Dictyostelium) and increasingly also choanoflagellates, whereas for bikonts, ciliates are preferred models.