Designing Accessible Tetrahymena Experiments for the

High School and Undergraduate Classroom

Michele Severson and John Giannini

Abstract
Over Interim 2015, I collaborated with Professor John
Giannini to create a Tetrahymena Movement manual. Our
purpose in creating the manual was to provide students and
teachers with simple tools to measure and visualize
Tetrahymena swimming. With the tools outlined in our lab
manual, we hope to provide the ideas necessary for students
and teachers alike to explore and create their own
independent movement lab experiments.

Process

Process
Design your experiment!

Grow Tetrahymena culture

Build capillary enclosure and slide chamber

When designing your own experiment with Tetrahymena,

you can examine many different effects based on your
interest. Collect data, descriptions, movies, and photos.
Chemotaxis, galvanotaxis, aerotaxis, and geotaxis
experiments are all possible.

Introduction
Tetrahymena are single cellular protozoan with hundreds of
hair-like organelles called cilia surrounding their cell bodies.
By coordinating the whipping movements of their cilia,
Tetrahymena are able to move around their environments.
Observing the swimming movements of Tetrahymena can
tell us about the conditions of their environment and whether
repellents (substances that deter Tetrahymena from
approaching) or attractants are present. Under neutral
conditions when no repellents or attractants are present,
Tetrahymena will move in a linear fashion with occasional
random turns.
If a repellent is encountered, Tetrahymena will produce
avoidance reactions (AR). An AR response appears as forward
and backward lurches of movement, which will continue until
the motion of the Tetrahymena is directed away from the
repellent.

The capillary enclosure

requires a capillary tube,
mounting putty, and a slide to
mount it on. To load with
Tetrahymena, simply dip into a
sample and allow capillary
action to fill the tube.

The slide chamber requires

two slides and is easy to load
with culture. The slide
chamber is ideal for observing
Tetrahymena swimming.

Load free video capture software

Software allows the capture

of Tetrahymena movement;
initial position is indicated in
red.

The Celestron Handheld Digital

Microscope is an affordable
option ($60) for classrooms on
a budget.

The movement of Tetrahymena is determined by changes

in their membrane potential. Mechanical stimuli, such as
when a Tetrahymena cell bumps into another cell, causes the
membrane to bend and open Ca2+ channels to cause a
depolarization of the cell and induces backward movement of
the cell. Likewise, chemical repellents activate Ca 2+ channels
that cause the cell to depolarize to increase rapid forward and
backward movement. Chemical attractants deactivate Ca 2+
channels, causing the cell to repolarize and remain stationary.

Use a centrifuge to remove a Tetrahymena

sample from a mass culture.

Use this starter list for ideas on which chemicals

to use for chemotaxis.

Acknowledgements
Focus the microscope so that there are 2030 cells in view. Much more than 30 will be
too difficult to track with the software. The
$60 Celestron microscope gives a clean and
clear image!

We would like to thank Chris Steward for his technical support during the
development of this manual. We would also like to thank Eric Cole for his
assistance and providing us with Tetrahymena stock culture.

Bibliography
Lampert, T., Nugent, C., Weston, J., Braun, N., & Kuruvilla, H. (2013). Nociceptin
signaling involves a calcium-based depolarization in Tetrahymena thermophila. International Journal of Peptides,
2013, 1-7.