A Quantitative Cytochemical Analysis on Lysome Fusion in the Digestive Cycle of Paramecium Caudatum

Abstract

Cytochemical and ultrastructural studies have been done on the digestive cycle in the protozoa, Paramecium caudatum. Bioassays for digestive vacuole acidification and condensation, and digestive vacuole defecation were established by previous work in this lab. A quantitative cytochemical study on lysosome fusion was lacking. First, a lysosomal-fusion bioassay was devised using fluorescent latex spheres (FPLS) as the digestive vacuole label and acid phosphatase as the lysosome enzyme marker. Using the Gomori technique to localize the acid phosphatase, the amount of enzyme activity was followed against time. The approximate rate of lysosome fusion was then calculated.