Yes, fruits and veggies are alive 🤯
Most plant cells exhibit this motion called “cytoplasmic streaming” or “cyclosis” 🌀
You may wonder if the movements are THAT fast 🏎️💨 ; they’re not! It’s a time laps, the original clip were sped up 15 times.
For this experience I used the fine epithelial pellicule which you can find between the onion layers! It’s perfect because the thickness is only of a single cell; there isn’t any interference and the images are crystal clear! The big round structure inside the cells is the nucleus that contains DNA while most of the little dots moving inside the cytoplasm are mitochondria (where the real power’s at my dudes) 💥
The moving cytoplasm looks like spider webs and is controlled by motor proteins from the cell’s skeleton, called the cytoskeleton. Molecules and cell components (mitochondria, ER, Golgi and peroxisomes) are able to move inside the cell using a motor protein called myosin which literally walks on a thread-like structure called actin! Actin is a key element of the cytoskeleton and is the most abundant protein in eukaryotic cells. It plays an important role in muscle contraction (in animals of course), cell division, cell signalling, cell motility and the list goes on!
Cytoplasmic streaming has been observed for the first time in 1774 in aquatic plants but is a very common phenomenon; it can be observe in amoebae, algae, terrestrial plants and fungi!
Video taken with my iPhone mounted on a BA310E Motic microscope with an @ilabcam ultra adapter 🔬
References:
Dominguez, R., & Holmes, K. C. (2011). Actin structure and function. Annual review of biophysics, 40, 169.
Verbelen, J. P., Foubert, S., Kerstens, S., Olyslaegers, G., Quélo, A. H., Van Gestel, K., & Vissenberg, K. (2001). The onion and the student: a fruitful combination! Practicals. Journal of Biological Education, 35(4), 196-200.
Verchot-Lubicz, J., & Goldstein, R. E. (2010). Cytoplasmic streaming enables the distribution of molecules and vesicles in large plant cells. Protoplasma, 240(1), 99-107.
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