What is the unusual feature of the protist Mixotricha paradoxa?

What is the unusual feature of the protist Mixotricha paradoxa?

• A. It possesses both cilia and flagella
• B. It lacks a nucleus
• C. It reproduces only by fission
• D. It forms a hard shell

Answer: (A)

Mixotricha paradoxa shows movement powered by its surface bacteria, not by its own cilia or flagella. This ciliate lives in the termite gut and is covered with motile bacterial symbionts that attach to its surface and generate propulsion, effectively acting as hair-like cilia or rotating flagella. So, the unusual feature is that locomotion is provided by ectosymbiotic bacteria on the protist, rather than by the protist’s own organelles. The organism remains a ciliate with a nucleus, and it does not form a hard shell; its reproduction isn’t limited to a single mode, so those points don’t describe its standout trait.

Mixotricha paradoxa shows movement powered by its surface bacteria, not by its own cilia or flagella. This ciliate lives in the termite gut and is covered with motile bacterial symbionts that attach to its surface and generate propulsion, effectively acting as hair-like cilia or rotating flagella. So, the unusual feature is that locomotion is provided by ectosymbiotic bacteria on the protist, rather than by the protist’s own organelles. The organism remains a ciliate with a nucleus, and it does not form a hard shell; its reproduction isn’t limited to a single mode, so those points don’t describe its standout trait.