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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

Quantification of Acanthamoeba spp. Motility
Published on: September 20, 2024
Locomotion and feeding of Acanthamoeba at the water-air interface of ponds
T M Preston1, H Richards, R S Wotton
1Biology Department, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, London, UK. t.preston@ucl.ac.uk
Abstract:
Acanthamoeba trophozoites attach to and effect amoeboid locomotion at the water-air interface of ponds. Their locomotory rate (approximately 0.8 microm s(-1)) and manner of independent movement at this interface is similar to that over solid substrata. Adhesion forces developed between amoebae and the water-air interface are greater than gravity and thus amoebae are also transported passively without detachment. Amoebae docked with the water-air interface remain and flourish here as they are shown, by using green fluorescent protein-labelled Aeromonas hydrophila, to feed on bacteria that occur at the interface, digesting them intracellularly.
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