Particle Capture and Selection by Marine Planktonic Ciliates

浮游纤毛虫，主要是寡毛类和细壳类 （Choreotrichia亚类，Choreotrichida和寡毛目） 是浮游植物的重要食草动物， 鞭毛虫，某种程度上，还有海洋中的细菌 最近 研究表明，它们吃了很大一部分的 小规模的初级生产。 也许有些人 这些浮游纤毛虫大多有摄食行为， 不能用简单的过滤器进食模型来解释。 使用 结合扫描电子显微镜，高速 视频显微镜，和粒子特性的操纵， 寡毛类和锡丁类对猎物的捕获和选择， 实验研究和分析。 问题是 讨论的是：筛选（过滤器）的相对作用是什么 喂养），直接拦截，水动力过程，和积极的 口腔捕获颗粒的扫描和捕获机制 膜？ 颗粒的物理化学性质 (size密度、表面电荷和疏水性）影响 粒子捕获？ 是否发生捕获后选择？ 并 粒子捕获机制或选择性发生变化 在这些纤毛虫中？ 综合办法，其中包括 功能形态学，流体力学和生物物理学，将是 有助于阐明海洋浮游生物的摄食生物学 纤毛虫

Planktonic ciliates, primarily oligotrichs and tintinnids (Subclass Choreotrichia, Orders Choreotrichida and Oligotrichida) are important grazers of phytoplankton, heterotrophic flagellates, and to some extent, bacteria in the sea. Recent studies suggest that they graze a significant portion of the primary production in the smaller size categories. Some, perhaps most, of these planktonic ciliates have feeding behaviors which cannot be accounted for by simple filter feeding models. Using a combination of scanning electron microscopy, high-speed videomicroscopy, and manipulation of particle characteristics, prey capture and selection by oligotrichs and tintinnids can be experimentally investigated and analyzed. The questions to be addressed are: What are the relative roles of sieving (filter feeding), direct interception, hydrodynamic processes, and active scan and trap mechanisms in particle capture by the oral membranelles? How do the physiochemical properties of particles (size, density, surface charge and hydrophobicity) affect particle capture? Does post-capture selection occur? Does variation in particle capture mechanisms or selectivity occur among these ciliates? The integrated approach, which includes functional morphology, hydrodynamics and biophysics, will be useful in elucidating the feeding biology of marine planktonic ciliates.