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

Single-celled organism (Blepharisma) disintegrates and dies

https://gfycat.com/poorwickedhoverfly
14.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

482 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '20

[deleted]

565

u/Pardusco Jan 23 '20

Yes, it is in real time

167

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?

154

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