Determining the effect of glucose concentration on the chemotactic response of Tetrahymena thermophila

Abstract

Chemotaxis is vital for the survival of Tetrahymena thermophila in various environmental conditions. Thus, the chemotaxis of T. thermophila was investigated in efforts to find an optimal concentration range of glucose at which a strong positive response occurs. T. thermophila were starved in 10mM Tris-HCl, pH = 7.5 for 24 hours then subjected to our glucose and control treatments using a 2-chamber assay apparatus. This was set up by suspending a 2 mL pipette containing 1mL of the glucose solution into a 6 mL test tube containing 2 mL of the starved T. thermophila. After fixing the cells with 1% glutaraldehyde, the cells in each replicate were counted using haemocytometer slides. A one-way ANOVA test followed by a Tukey HSD test showcased a statistically significant difference in glucose concentrations of 1 x 10^-1 M and 1x10^-6 M, however there was no statistically significant difference among the other treatments. Our study demonstrated that T. thermophila exhibits a stronger chemotactic response to higher concentrations of glucose. However, an optimal glucose concentration range for strong chemotaxis response was not determined.