axostyle

The cell may use the axostyle to swim, as the sheets slide past one another and cause it to undulate.

An axostyle is a sheet of microtubules found in certain microbial eukaryotes.

This is called the axostyle, but is different in structure from the axostyles of oxymonads.

In addition, a conspicuous barb-like axostyle projects opposite the four-flagella bundle.

Like other parabasalids, they typically have an axostyle, a pelta, a costa, and parabasal bodies.

The axostyle may be used for attachment to surfaces and may also cause the tissue damage seen in trichomoniasis infections.

Within Trichomonads the axostyle has been theorised to participate in locomotion and cell adhesion, but also karyokinesis during cell division.

In Histomonas only one flagellum and a reduced axostyle are found, and in Dientamoeba, both are absent.

Their basal bodies give rise to a several long sheets of microtubules, which form an organelle called an axostyle, but different in structure from the axostyles of parabasalids.

It is the smallest of the three Trichomonas, 12-20 um long and 5-6 um wide, and has a long axostyle and tail, 4 anterior flagella and a recurrent flagellum raising an undulating membrane to two third of the body.