Ultrastructure of the photosynthetic ciliate Mesodinium rubrum

New cellular structures, bifurcated oral tentacles, were observed in many specimens of the photosynthetic ciliate Mesodinium rubrum from the northern Baltic Sea. Cross-sections of tentacles revealed rings (cylinders) of 14 microtubules with spokes. The number of microtubules per ring decreased from 14 to 12 or 11 inside the cell but no true kinetosomes were detected. These "micro-rings" were often associated with extrusomes and the tentacle tips consisted of extrusomes. A nucleus of a symbiotic alga was present, surrounded by algal cytoplasm containing plastids and delimited from the ciliate cytoplasm by two membranes. Each plastid was bounded by four membranes and was associated with one nucleomorph, suggesting a symbiotic origin as a cryptophyte. The unique symbiotic organization and the organelles of 14 microtubules make Mesodinium rubrum an organism of unusual evolutionary interest.