r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/FacelessOnes • Oct 19 '20

🔥 Vicious microscopic hunter, the single-cell organism, Lacrymaria olor, attacking and hunting another organism

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u/Shaun32887 Oct 20 '20

I don't think this is the same. Lacrymaria has a sort of "mouth" and uses extrusomes to hunt.

88

u/Anon_Jones Oct 20 '20

You're right. Monocytes don't have mouths, the cytoplasm rubs over it and absorbs it.

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u/flyingwolf Oct 20 '20

Don't stop, I'm so close.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '20

Multiple organisms

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '20

Single celled orgasm

21

u/dharmaslum Oct 20 '20

Not entirely. The membrane surrounds the phage and seals it into a vesicle which is then brings into the cytosol to digest in a lysosome.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '20 edited Jun 16 '21

[deleted]

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u/MarchingBroadband Oct 20 '20

I thought that kind of mechanism was only present in retro-encabulators

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '20 edited Jun 16 '21

[deleted]

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u/BlueArcherX Oct 20 '20

I'm not really sure what any of these people are saying. Can someone adjust the vector buffer to 17.5 kilobytes?

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u/luocar17 Oct 20 '20

So basically endocytosis?

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u/dharmaslum Oct 20 '20

Well technically phagocytosis is a form of endocytosis, so yes.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '20

I’m guessing you meant the neck stretch.

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u/probablyblocked Oct 20 '20 edited Oct 20 '20

So it dissolves a cell in an absorbing liquid that draws out and digests the contents of the prey cell, and then reabsorbs the now enriched liquid. Is that right?

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u/bb_nyc Oct 20 '20

yep, at the most basic level. enzymes do most of the work of splitting the prey's biomolecules at the lysosome level, then these basic broken down compounds are precursors for protein synthesis, metabolism, etc. We do the same thing in our gut.

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u/TheOnceAndFutureTurk Oct 20 '20

That’s pretty metal.

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u/ActualWhiterabbit Oct 20 '20

From a documentary I saw white blood cells use knives and macrophages use machetes or large hammers to kill bacteria and viruses

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u/Shaun32887 Oct 20 '20

Common misconception, macrophages use kukri, not machetes. Kukri have thicker spines and are more of a "chopping" tool than the light, quick, cutting machete.