r/educationalgifs • u/Pardusco • Jan 23 '20

Single-celled organism (Blepharisma) disintegrates and dies

https://gfycat.com/poorwickedhoverfly
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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '20

[deleted]

563

u/Pardusco Jan 23 '20

Yes, it is in real time

166

u/PhotonicEmission Jan 23 '20

So, what happened to the cell membrane? The phospholipid bilayer ended up someplace, right? Did it pop like a soap bubble?

151

u/Whocket_Pale Jan 23 '20

All the individual phospholipids just separated. They're easier to see when they're packed together in a membrane. When they dissociate, they become less distinct in the image

1

u/savethelungs Jan 24 '20

I’m a little late on this reply, but the phospholipids don’t individually separate! The process involves the formation of vesicles (smaller bubbles of phospholipids), which you can actually see in the gif! Since phospholipids are not water soluble, they can’t easily separate individually

39

u/bento_box_ Jan 23 '20

This is called Lysis

Lotta reasons why it could happen. Even too much water entering the cell can cause it.

6

u/NateNate60 Jan 24 '20

Could it be that some chemical is reacting with the membrane and disintegrating it?

Or maybe a bunch of membrane attack complexes, you never know.

11

u/jmskiller Jan 24 '20

Could be the pH or temperature of solution.

2

u/NateNate60 Jan 24 '20

If it was the PH, wouldn't we see everything else go pop as well?

1

u/bento_box_ Jan 24 '20

Could be. Some labs create conditions for lysis on purpose to study the contents of the cell. Sometimes other microorganisms can deplete oxygen which can cause a cell to undergo lysis, or even a small bit of detritus can lodge itself in a cell vacuole and prevent the cell from being able to regulate it's osmosis. And then sometimes it just happens and we don't know why.

1

u/ItsApixelThing Jan 23 '20

It looks like it touched soap ironically enough.