Paramecium Cells
Paramecium cells are unicellular organisms. They are part of the eukaryotic family. Thus they have membrane-bound organelles.
Paramecium is free living ciliated Protozoa, its cell body is surrounded by cilia; . The function of the cilia is to allow paramecium to move around in its freshwater habitat, they are also used to waft small bacteria and algaes into the gullet (a large invagination in the cell membrane) where they are endocytosed and assymilated into the cell. All waste excess is exctreted via the anal pore. Paramecium lives in a freshwater environment which in the abscence of contractile vacuoles would burst this is caused by the osmotic uptake of water, by a process known as osmoregulation [1]. The Paramecium cell reproduces by a process called conjugation.[2] andasexual fission asexual fission creates two genetically identical daughter cells. Paramecium has action potentials not unlike those that occur in neurons calcium ions enter the cell through voltage gated channels and cause the rapid depolarisation of the cell and generate an action potential. The repolarising phase is due to the closing of the calcium ion channels and the opening of the potassium ion channels The length of a typical paramecium varies from 100 μm to 300 μm [3]. They can be found in freshwater areas, like ponds and lakes.