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 Help, please.

I need to vent.

I need to cry.

I need to scream.

Please.

I don't want to go on anymore, seriously.

I don't want to know anything more.

Why can't I be free?

Please.

Silence.

                                  I need silence.

ｈｅｌｐ

What am I doing?

Am I even doing anything?

The deadline for that fully paid course to the Galapagos Islands, in the cradle of Biology (for those who have never set foot in Ecuador), is today. I've partially met all the requirements...

For what?

They're not going to accept me anyway; I'm missing the requirements. The monograph they're demanding isn't even good; it's a lame excuse because I have neither the interest nor the ability to write scientifically. I have to admit, though, that I feel incredibly violated and disingenuous writing long, self-motivational sentences. "Oh yes, I'm stroking myself thinking this will strengthen my burning desire to contribute to the world, adding valuable pillars of knowledge about plants, in this place." It just feels so contrived. I simply want to go, to see if I can land a job, and that's it.

No, that's a lie.

What am I even talking about?

I'm not even close to having a job.

I'm not even close to having my final year project done.

I haven't written anything about it in the last few days since my last meeting with my thesis supervisor. I don't even think it's some kind of rebellion against the system. Good grief, what nonsense is that? I've simply given up.

I have to admit it. I've given up. I want to get out of this life, but I simply don't have the strength or the determination. I immediately start thinking about the next obstacles I'll have to overcome, and that's exhausting enough to stop me in the present.

Drawing protists. Writing the books or articles that I haven't even finished yet. Dreaming about getting them published... and what for? It won't do me much good, especially seeing how little impact they have, or will have in the short term. It won't change the fact that I'm failing as a graduate. A pseudo-graduate.

I was going to continue writing about the complete disaster that was the last "expedition" I went on. It doesn't matter.

You know what? It doesn't matter.

I need help. Because the small achievements I make aren't mattering, or whether I write a single line of the final report. I only see darkness at the end of it all. I'm not going to write about how I see myself in a few years. Because it simply disappoints me, and it also worries me. I simply... need help. And I don't have the financial resources to seek the professional help that might pull me out of this mental hole.

Insecurity. Anxiety, or nervousness around people, whatever the hell you call it. Loneliness. Disappointment. Inner anger. A sabbatical, a sabbatical, impossible, I can't afford it.

But I do need help. Somehow.

Klosteria bodomorphis Mylnikov & Nikolaev 2003

Klosteria bodomorphis is a free-living protist belonging to the Neobodonidae family, which, as I'll explain later, is related to dangerous kinetoplastid organisms... well, it's not that surprising, but still.

These drawings are free to use and you probably found them on Wikimedia Commons. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. Free use for non-commercial purposes. You also have to give credit every time you use an image. "DOTkamina 2026" is fine, I think.

Sources: formally just one: "The taxonomic position of Klosteria bodomorphis gen. and sp. nov. (Kinetoplastida) based on ultrastructure and SSU rRNA gene sequence analysis" by Sergey I. Nikolaev, Alexander P. Mylnikov, Cedric Berney, Jose Fahrni, Nikolai Petrov and Jan Pawlowski, Protistology 3 (2), 126-135 (2003)... or simply Nikolaev et al. (2003). It's literally the article where this species is described. Although, to be honest, it was a bit complicated because there were strange concepts I didn't quite understand. That's why I also consulted this book chapter on kinetoplastid microanatomy: "Kinetoplastea" by Gibson, W. (2016).

So... Klosteria bodomorphis belongs to the family Neobodonidae, order Neobodonida, subclass Metakinetoplastina, in the class Kinetoplastea. I don't know what is more unnerving: that Kinetoplastea is included in the phylum Euglenozoa (meaning they are distantly related to the famous microalgae Euglena), or that along with Neobodonida, which includes free-living species that eat bacteria, it encompasses other clades where the titans, the horror of many, reside, such as Trypanosoma and Leishmania (in the order Trypanosomatida).

But with Klosteria bodomorphis, you have nothing to worry about. This is a free-living organism that was isolated from samples taken from the Baltic Sea shoreline, near the town of Kloster, Germany, in December 1994. It's an organism that feeds on bacteria—which ones? I don't know. In the illustration, I depict a specimen of Aerobacter (Klebsiella) aerogenes as prey, and within its food vacuoles, I have drawn amorphous pinkish blobs representing partially digested bacteria of that species. The reason for choosing this specific species is that Nikolaev et al. (2003) used this bacterium as a food source in laboratory culture. However, it is unknown exactly which bacterial species or clades it might consume in nature.

But focusing on its anatomy, I'll begin by saying that it has two heterodynamic flagella: the anterior one measures 12 µm and the posterior one 17 µm. At the end of each flagellum are short, tapering tips known as acronemes. The anterior flagellum is covered with mastigonemes measuring 2 to 2.5 µm. Both flagella are covered by a layer of condensed glycocalyx, but I haven't depicted that.

You already know the typical flagellar configuration: 9+2 (nine doublets of microtubules surrounding two central single microtubules), enclosed by the plasma membrane. More generally, flagella "emerge" from the cytoplasm. In Klosteria bodomorphis, the flagella emerge from a kind of "depression" on the cell surface, surrounding the lower portions of the external flagella. This "depression" is known as a "flagellar pocket," which is shallow and located subapically. According to Nikolaev et al. (2003), flagellar pockets containing four flagella have been found... which is quite disturbing.

Equally disturbing is the microtubule system identified using electron microscopy, which I have represented more accurately based on the text by Gibson (2016). First, it's worth noting that the flagella, or rather, the 9+2 configuration, originate from the basal bodies. The basal bodies are also anchored by flagellar roots (abbreviated "fr" in the image). Hell yeah, fr!

The flagellar root of the anterior flagellum (that is, the one that originates from the basal body of the previous flagellum) is made of 2 to 3 microtubules and then gives rise to the dorsal submembrane band (simply called the "dorsal band"), which is made of at least 25 microtubules. This band, according to Gibson (2016), extends along the entire dorsal side of the cell.

Simultaneously, the flagellar root of the posterior flagellum emerges from the basal body of the posterior flagellum. This root is composed of six microtubules and extends posteriorly (presumably towards the ventral side of the cell) to form the ventral submembrane band (or simply the "ventral band"), composed of 27 microtubules, which runs along the entire ventral side of the cell.

Between the basal bodies are two microtubules that connect them, which I have labeled as the "fibrillar connection" in the illustration. Another interesting microtubular structure is the so-called "MTR band" (microtubular reinforced band), composed of four to five microtubules. It originates at the surface of the flagellar pocket and extends to the cytopharynx, where it is supplemented by additional microtubules. I have depicted two additional microtubules in the illustration, but Nikolaev et al. (2003) do not specify the actual number. I chose that number because I think I see two more than the 5 of MTR (I hope there are 5) in Illustration 16, but in Illustrations 14 and 15 I think I see more... so I don't know xd.

The shapes of the bands are purely illustrative, but their placement is based verbatim on Nikolaev et al. (2003), and primarily visually on Gibson (2016) Figure 3, and Frolov et al. 2021.

The organism has a cytostome (the "mouth" through which food, bacteria, enters), which is essentially the opening through which food enters. This opening connects to the rest of the invagination, the cytopharynx, a tunnel-like structure measuring 1.8 to 2.3 µm. The lower part of the cytopharynx is surrounded by vesicles. This can be called the "cytostome-cytopharynx complex," and it is simply a very complex cellular feature for phagocytosis, since it is in the cytopharynx that food is packaged into food vacuoles. These vacuoles are directed toward the hind part of the cell (the posterior part).

The organism also has a Golgi apparatus, which is located near the basal bodies. The shape of the Golgi apparatus in the illustration is more schematic than realistic. The nucleus with nucleolus, obviously (although I haven't depicted the nucleolus in this image), "lies at the level of the bottom of the flagellar pocket and at the end of the cytopharynx," according to Nikolaev et al. (2003). They also say that the nucleus is vesicular. I don't know exactly what that means; in (cancer) cytology, it refers to cells with loosely packed chromatin, which under the microscope appear to have nothing inside... but I don't know. In my illustration, you'll see that the nucleus has some dark ornaments in the center and others surrounding it. You can assume the one in the center is the nucleolus. This decision was based on Nikolaev et al. (2003): Figure 17. Around the nucleus is the endoplasmic reticulum, both smooth and rough, and its shapes and existence are speculative (I assume they must exist because they are common in all eukaryotic cells).

The mitochondrion have an almost speculative shape. As can be seen in Nikolaev et al. (2003): Figure 18, appears to extend across a significant portion of the cell. The authors debate whether it is truly a single structure or if it might be more branched. I have chosen to depict it as slightly branched. The authors describe the mitochondria as having discoid cristae. The cristae are invaginations of the inner mitochondrial membrane, and their discoid form refers to the fact that these invaginations are shaped like discs with small "peduncles" (pedicellate, see Pánek et al. (2020): Figures 2A and 2F) when the section is longitudinal, and like sausages or cylindrical "bacilli" when the section is transverse. I have represented them almost as if they were seen in transverse section and pedicellate, in the mitochondrion of my illustration.

Now, I mentioned earlier that Klosteria bodomorphis belongs to the large order Kinetoplastea, and you'll read that the most important characteristic of this group is the kinetoplast, a mass of DNA arranged in maxicircles and minicircles (Wang et al. 2025), located within the mitochondria in a specific region, usually near the basal bodies. But this isn't a mandatory feature for all kinetoplastids; it's actually a structure that is repeated in some, and especially studied in species that are parasitic to humans. For other kinetoplastid species, we can speak of "kinetoplasty," a term that encompasses other forms of organization of kinetoplastid DNA (kDNA).

One such form is pankinetoplasty, described as bundles of kDNA isotropically distributed throughout part or all of the mitochondrial lumen (Gibson 2016: Figure 1i)... think of it as more or less elongated groups of kDNA that are present throughout, or almost throughout, the interior of the mitochondrion. In cell biology, "isotropic" refers to the fact that, in any part of a structure, the properties (I suppose physical, shape, optical, chemical, or whatever) will be more or less similar (New World Encyclopedia n.d.).

According to Nikolaev et al. (2003), Klosteria bodomorphis has little DNA within the mitochondrion that can be interpreted as kDNA, and if so, the most appropriate classification would be pankinetoplasty. The reason they give is that the kDNA fibers do not occupy a very prominent space within the mitochondria. The pankinetoplast (and any other type of kinetoplast, really) should appear as dark spots or aggregates within the mitochondria under an electron microscope. I only manage to observe this more or less in Nikolaev et al. (2003): Figures 16 and 18. I imagine these small spots are slightly darker than the cristae... I have represented the supposed "pankinetoplast" of K. bodomorphis as more or less elongated spots, somewhat distributed throughout the mitochondrion... but it is possible that in reality they are even smaller, more insignificant, less observable or noteworthy spots.

Finally, storage substance granules measuring 0.10 to 0.35 µm in diameter have also been observed in Klosteria bodomorphis. These, along with symbiotic bacteria, one of the most cursed aspects of the organism, measure 0.3 to 0.6 µm in diameter. The authors noted cell division in some of these bacteria, and I have indeed depicted such bacterial division in my illustration.

However, this isn't the end. I've forgotten about the trichocysts. In Klosteria bodomorphis, these are elongated and cylindrical. Length: 1.2 to 1.9 µm, diameter: 0.15 µm, with an internal rod of 0.6 to 0.77 µm, which I've represented as a darker area within the trichocysts. Nikolaev et al. (2003) mention that they are located near the ventral side of the flagellar pocket. I suppose I've erred here because I've depicted them more dorsally, near the ventral band. In fact, this is clearer in the image attached next to the main one, titled "Close-up of the flagellar zone," (the image above, without labels) which is entirely inspired by Nikolaev et al. (2003): Figure 13. So... feel free to discuss whatever you like in the comments. I'd be happy to see corrections and possible improvements. My hand hurts right now, and I have a trip planned where I'll be dragging myself along to see if my final project makes any progress, so lol.

There are 8 to 9 trichocysts arranged in a row, also known as extrusomes. This group is known as a "trichocyst battery." In the main image, only two trichocysts are visible, but that doesn't mean there are only two... they're assumed to be viewed from the side, and those two are "covering" the others.

I guess that's all I have to say. I wasn't expecting to do this illustration, because the organism seemed strange to me. I don't even know how I came across this organism; I think I was reading about trichocysts for a previous illustration. I don't know, I just got a sudden urge and said, "Let's do it, or I'll die." Or maybe it was out of pride. Or perhaps it was out of morbid curiosity to see if I'll finally reach 100 illustrations, or even 20. That number 20 looks pretty promising.

I Wish it Would Rain Down

 

A gentle night of aggressive rain.

My computer just got back from repairs.

The graphics card almost exploded from the heat.

I don't have the means to afford another computer or any repairs.

So I just have to endure it as long as I can.

Keep creating.

(´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

S̴h̴e̶ ̸p̶r̴o̸b̵a̴b̵l̷y̷ ̴w̴o̴u̴l̸d̷n̸'̷t̸ ̷h̷a̵v̵e̷ ̷c̶a̸r̸e̴d̵.̶

Phil Collins' music is good right now.

It's an eerie moment.

I have so many important things to do.

But I still continue with what I love to do.

Drawing organisms.

At least for now, in the present of this post.

While I remember the times I wrote to her hoping for some reaction, a laughing emoji after ages without a reply.

How can she be with such toxic people, and pretend not to notice?

I don't think I've mentioned it in another post, but yes, I cut off all communication with girl M. Literally. It's been almost a month since I've heard from her. I don't even know what's become of her. I assume that if I had continued forcing the interaction, I would still be stuck wondering what I should write to get her attention. I suppose. If I told her what happened to my computer, a slight "hahaha" and nothing more. No interest.

Sometimes I presume that I've proven she really didn't care because since I stopped writing to her, she hasn't said a single word. But that's actually because I had blocked her. Any message she might have sent, well, I simply didn't receive it. I hope it was some message offering help with something, as it always has been. 

I'm not going to repeat the same old shit about it being that and not an effort to evolve the interaction into something more, because in reality, I was just deluding myself, thinking there was something more, being the one bothering her by sending memes, asking how her day was, and so on, with the attempt... no, with the certainty, that she neither cared about it, nor gained anything from it, and that it actually annoyed her.

It's stopped raining. Now everything is silent. "Phil Collins - I Wish It Would Rain Down" plays loudly as those memories continue to fade, blurring into artificial recollections where everything was better and worked.

I have a lot of work to do. 

My university just threatened me, saying I have to submit one last course performance report, or I'll face some unknown sanction. 

On top of that, I need to make some progress on my final year project, which I'm already fed up with not making any damn progress on. And pretending it's all the university's fault, because the truth is, those bastards have thrown all sorts of obstacles in my way, from methodological ones to questioning the stupid topic I chose—I don't want to talk about it. Because I haven't done anything wrong, and I'm not doing anything wrong now. 

"Yes, yes, I am a responsible, diligent, and committed person" is a typical empty resume line, or rather, the typical empty line on my resumes to say that I'll basically sell myself for a few bucks. When in reality I don't fit those descriptions. The director of the museum where the samples I analyze are housed got incredibly angry because I wasn't making significant progress on the final project. 

It's an interesting contrast, you know? One day I said to myself: I think I've finally found my true calling: protists. You know. Reading about them so I can draw them, which isn't easy, I invest many hours reading in depth (or more or less in depth) articles and other sources that explain aspects of cellular microanatomy to see how to represent a structure. And I'm not going to get paid for it! No money, of course. I do it all so that it's free, open access, and trusting that people will mention my name as the author, and avoid being forgotten.

It's a contrast, when I genuinely love something and put my heart into it. And then there's my project, which has me completely exhausted. I don't feel like finishing it; I just want it to magically write itself, for the pain of presenting in front of the jury to be over, for me to get my degree, and say: I did it, just like that.

ლ(⋋·⋌)ლ

Besides that, I have to make some serious corrections to the illustration of Dolichomastix tenuilepis because I'm a total crap and I've forgotten to properly read the spatial orientations and I've drawn a lot of things backward. I MUST fix that. 

Additionally, I have to finish a drawing of a kinetoplastid organism. It's one of the ones I'm most proud of because it was from an article I didn't want to read at all, but I told myself, "Screw it. Let's do it." And I'm almost finished because I discovered some things that could improve the drawing's accuracy.

Aaaah... drawings.

I remember when girl M asked me what I was doing. "I draw... I draw the structures of microorganisms." And what did I expect? I don't know. I wasn't asking her to be a genius and complement me. But I did expect appreciation, understanding, tenderness. That I was being observed. Like an anime couple where the protagonist's crush is interested in the manga he reads in the purest way possible, simply because he's him and he's great. And because he's good and takes care of her and attends to her quirks.

It also reminds me of the first time someone was interested in one of my drawings, a crush from a bygone era, girl P. But that's a story for another post that I probably won't write.

Do you know what I have received? The Graphic Designer Barnstar!!!!

＼(｀0´)／

/╲/\〳 ᴼᴼ ౪ ᴼᴼ 〵/\╱\

I consider it one of the most prestigious recognitions a user can receive in the Wikipedia ecosystem. It's something I've dreamed about quite a few times, especially when looking at other users' profiles and seeing their Barnstars. "Wow, those people are truly amazing and they do something that matters." And I can... now I can think about it, think that I too am part of that exclusive social group. And it's wonderful! It might sound lame, but I didn't expect to get that barnstar status with so little effort.

And that's why I must continue. 

One more illustration. 

Little by little. 

Until I burn out, until something stops me in my tracks.

σ( ' ┰￣)

I wish there was a certain girl, so I could celebrate with her. And not be judged. Or ignored in reality. "Reality."

But... enough with the edgy, dark, and cloying writing. I must finish these illustrations. 

It's a promise I made to myself that I have to keep.

Dolichomastix tenuilepis

Get ready y̵̛̥̻̥̝̫͙̞̜̭̯͆̈̂̏̈̈́͜o̵̢͉̦͉͙̼̖̳̘̣͇̤̱̽͌̚ͅų̸̨̺̰͕̩͇͇̪̭̬͓͈̟͈̜̤͓̣̒̆̒̌̔̽̂̐̈̒̿̎̅͑͜ͅ ̷̼͎̦̺͍̰̥̮̝́̑̏͌̽̐̔h̵̨̛̜̤̺̗͈̩̠̹̘̩̩̠̬̞̫̓́̓̎̍̈̚̚̚͠0̴̢̢̘̹͇̻̝͛̒̎́͛̓̃͒̇̂̔͒̋͘̕͠ͅ3̵͚̳̪̱̻̤͔̹̓̓̏͂̍̾͆̀͠š̶̛̥̥͔̠̭͙̹̜͓̦̏̾̋̅͊̈͗͐̏̈́͗, because the following drawings are, so far this post has given me the biggest headaches. And I thought cryptomonads were a different story. I guess not.

First things first: all the illustrations here are free to use for any project, research, or assignment you want under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license. The illustrations cannot be used for commercial purposes. And you must give credit for them. Mentioning me is enough: "DOTkamina (2026)."

Second, the sources, of course. Fortunately, I only relied on one article for the illustrations and all the written information in this post: "Dolichomastix tenuilepis sp. nov., a first insight into the microanatomy of the genus Dolichomastix (Mamiellales, Prasinophyceae, Chlorophyta)" (1997), by Jahn Throndsen and Adriana Zingone.

Additionally, I consulted "Phylogenetic position of Crustomastix stigmatica sp. nov. and Dolichomastix tenuilepis in relation to the Mamiellales (Prasinophyceae, Chlorophyta)" Zingone et al. 2002; and "Basal body structure and cell cycle-dependent biogenesis in Trypanosoma brucei" Vaughan and Gull (2015). Both works were consulted primarily to review the nature of the 9+2 arrangement of the flagellar axoneme.

First, a little taxonomy. D. tenuilepis is included in the order Dolichomastigales, this in the class Mamiellophyceae, infrakingdom Chlorophyta, which is included in the subkingdom Viridiplantae (plants and algae related to plants, with chlorophytes being an infrakingdom related to streptophytes, the group in which plants as such are included).

Dolichomastix tenuilepis. Main illustration.

That said, the main illustration encompassing everything I depicted is the one that... that is above this text dude. It includes a lateral view (left side) of Dolichomastix tenuilepis, a detail of the hair scales on its flagella, a detail of the flagellar apparatus, a cross-section, dorsal and ventral views, and a detail of the eyespot, which is in tangential section. "I will describe these subsections in more detail later".

I have to say that the image makes me somewhat uneasy; on the one hand, I'm proud to think that I finally managed to finish something so complicated to depict, which was just a pencil sketch. But on the other hand, I think it's too cluttered.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but in this overall image, in the illustration corresponding to the lateral view, there's a line of yellow dots, representing the hypothetical transversal section.

D. tenuilepis. Longitudinal or lateral (left side) view.

The organism has a rounded-triangular shape, measuring 3 to 4.5 µm in length, with a flattened area from which the two flagella emerge. In the image, I've chosen to represent the species at 4 µm, and the flagellar length is based on this size (the scale bar is 4 µm for the lateral view of the organism, the main representation). That's all. The width and size of the organelles don't follow this scale, purely for aesthetic reasons and to make them visible. I've tried to make it as realistic as possible, but I wanted to keep this in mind.

Dolichomastix tenuilepis has only one large, pale olive-to-green chloroplast that occupies almost the entire ventral surface. It's cup-shaped and contains a single pyrenoid covered with a starch sheath; this starch sheath is also cup-shaped. This shape is due to the starch sheath not actually covering the entire pyrenoid. The area where it is absent is due to one or more peduncles extending from the pyrenoid. I haven't drawed a pedancle in the illustration (because I've basically forgotten), but that peduncle would be located in the area of ​​the pyrenoid not covered by the starch sheath (in the illustration, in the middle of the pyrenoid located dorsally). The pyrenoid is located dorsally within the chloroplast.

On the most distal (ventral) side of the chloroplast, there is an eyespot or stigma, an organelle that acts as an eye (very primitively, detecting the direction and intensity of light). The eyespot in Dolichomastix tenuilepis is basically a layer of densely packed droplets, which have a hexagonal shape when cut tangentially. I represent this in the dorsal and ventral views shown later.

Above the chloroplast is a sausage-shaped mitochondrion. I've depicted it that way in the image, but in reality, mitochondrion isn't necessarily straight. Therefore, in a true longitudinal section, they would appear cut. Thus, in Throndsen and Zingone (1997), Figures 10 and 11, it appears as if there are two small, circular mitochondria at each end of the cell, but that's because in that section, only the ends of the entire mitochondrion are cut. It's very important to read the original descriptions! Throndsen and Zingone (1997) mention that the mitochondrion "follows the inner edge of the chloroplast."

Between the region where the pyrenoid of the chloroplast is located and the nucleus, there is a microbody. Microbodies are organelles that house proteins involved in some process of cellular metabolism. Examples of microbodies in other organisms are peroxisomes and glyoxysomes. In Dolichomastix tenuilepis, its microbody does not appear to have been categorized into any specific type, nor have I found (so far) any information about what type of proteins it might contain and for what function. 

In my illustration, I have chosen to represent the microbody as being "behind" the mitochondria. I have done this because in Throndsen and Zingone (1997) Figure 11, it is not very clear whether the microbody is behind or in front of the middle part of the mitochondria, but in Figure 12, which is a cross-section, the sectioned portion of the mitochondrion is located toward the left, and the nucleus toward the right. 

Considering that the microbody is located "between the nucleus and the pyrenoid region in the chloroplast," this should mean that spatially it is located on the right. That is, transversely. Viewed longitudinally (laterally), from the left side of the cell, the microbody would appear to be covered or hidden by the mitochondria. Well, that's the logic I came up with.

Another organelle for which there is photographic evidence in Dolichomastix tenuilepis is the Golgi apparatus. It is located near the bases of the flagella (that is, near the basal bodies), and opposite the nucleus. The organism's scales are produced in the Golgi apparatus (I will explain more about them later), and these are transported to the cell surface by scale-bearing vesicles. Throndsen and Zingone (1997) observed an additional vesicle containing fibrous material, "which does not appear to be related to the Golgi apparatus." In the illustration, I have labeled it "Fibrillar vesicle material."

The nucleus would be located in the posterior region of the cell, when viewed laterally from the left side of the organism. The nucleus is surrounded by the endoplasmic reticulum; I assume there is both rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum (the rough endoplasmic reticulum is the one with a large number of ribosomes, which are the dots I have represented on the rough endoplasmic reticulum in the illustration). However, Throndsen and Zingone (1997) only mention that: "A very well developed endoplasmic reticulum, continuous with the perinuclear space, is observed in some sections." See Figure 15 of the article.

Lateral view. No labels version.

With that, we come to the flagella. There are two; the right one (12 to 18 µm) is always longer than the left one (8 to 16 µm). You already know the basic structure of eukaryotic flagella: a flagellum is actually a system of microtubules (called an "axoneme") that originates in the cytoplasm from microtubular structures called "basal bodies." The axoneme of each basal body then extends out of the cytoplasm, enveloped in a plasma membrane. This axoneme and surrounding plasma membrane assembly is what we call a "flagella," with the basal body serving as the point of attachment and origin. As in other eukaryotes, the microtubule arrangement of the axoneme is 9+2: nine microtubule doublets surrounding two central microtubules.

Now, the 9+2 axoneme of a flagellum is supposed to originate after the transition zone, which is actually "the same axoneme" with a slightly different configuration (for example, 9+0, 9 microtubule doublets without microtubules in the center, as occurs in Trypanosoma brucei) (Vaughan and Gull 2015), and which is located more or less before the exit zone of the 9+2 axoneme in the cytoplasm. The transition zone is what connects to the basal body, which has an arrangement of 9 microtubule triplets.

In Dolichomastix tenuilepis, I only know that the flagellar axoneme itself is 9+2 (see Throndsen and Zingone (1997), Figure 12). I don't know the configuration of the transition zone or the basal body (although I assume it would have 9 triplets, since that is the general configuration of the basal body in eukaryotes). In the junction between the transition zone and the flagellum itself, there is a "transitional plate," a protein structure that surrounds this junction. In D. tenuilepis, the transitional plate can be bordered by a double protein ring. This is represented in the "Flagellar system detail" illustration.

Another peculiarity is that, in other organisms, the flagellum should already have its 9+2 arrangement as soon as it "emerges" from the transition zone (that is, as soon as the connection delimited by the transitional plate begins). But in Dolichomastix tenuilepis, this is not the case. In fact, the central pair of microtubules of the 9+2 axoneme appears late, not immediately after the transitional plate.

The basal bodies of the flagella are described as long, and between them lies the "distal fiber," a structural protein involved in anchoring the basal bodies to the plasma membrane (Megías et al. 2025).  Other notable structural protein components of basal bodies are the "flagellar roots," which anchor the basal bodies to the cell cytoplasm. I will discuss these in more detail later.

The flagella are covered by hair scales, which can be of three types: T-hair scales, lateral, 0.4 µm long, tubular in shape, arranged in two rows on each flagellum, and with an accumulation of electron-dense material at their tips, which makes the tips of the T-hair scales appear darker under an electron microscope.

At the ends of each flagellum, there are aggregates of 3 or 4 "tip hair scales," 0.3 µm long, similar in shape to the T-hair scales, except without the darker terminal end.

Finally, the third type are the P1-hairs. These are present in very small numbers (in Throndsen and Zingone (1997) Figure 25, only about four are indicated, although I could swear I see five). They are only found in the proximal part (the area closest to the cytoplasm) of the right flagellum (the longer one). They are incredibly long, measuring 1.7 µm, and consist of two parts: the proximal shaft or "first portion," measuring 1.2 µm, and the distal part or "second portion," measuring 0.5 µm if you do the math, which consists of 32 globular subunits in a chain.

This anatomy of the hair scales is truly strange. However, Dolichomastix tenuilepis has more "normal" scales (that is, scales that are not hair-like), and of two types: "body scales," which cover the plasma membrane of the cell body; and the "flagellar scales", which cover the plasma membrane of the flagella. These can be seen more clearly in the following image, "Flagellar system's close up".

In this image, I have attempted to closely depict the basal body system and how each flagellum emerges from its respective basal body. The distal fiber connecting the two basal bodies is visible. The transitional plate in each flagellum, the area between the end of the basal body and the transitional plate, would be the "transition zone." The transitional plate of the left flagellum has darker edges, corresponding to the double ring of electron-dense material, according to Throndsen and Zingone (1997) (Figure 20). I have chosen to represent it in the transitional plate of the left flagellum, but the authors mention that this double ring is more of a structure "that may or may not exist." I interpret this to mean that the double ring could very well be in the transitional plate of the right flagellum, or in both flagella simultaneously.

From the transitional plate onward, we can begin to speak of the flagellum as such, with a 9+2 axoneme. It's noticeable how this arrangement actually begins later in the flagellum, as the two central microtubules start slightly after the transitional plate (shown in yellow). I've also depicted two peripheral microtubule doublets (shown in green), a very simplified representation, but remember that in reality there are nine microtubule doublets surrounding the two central microtubules (9+2 arrangement).

A flagellar root emerges from the basal body of the left flagellum, represented as three parallel pink lines. This is one of the possible arrangements. Flagellar roots are also clusters of microtubules that anchor the basal bodies to the cytoplasm. One such arrangement is the "triple root," consisting of three parallel microtubules. If viewed longitudinally, they would appear as three parallel lines very close together, just as seen in the image... although this isn't very noticeable under a microscope. It's more evident in a transverse section, where they appear as three closely spaced points.

The other arrangement is the "three + one root," which consists of three parallel microtubules alongside a single, isolated microtubule running close to the triplet. These are the two types reported explicitly, although Throndsen and Zingone (1997), Figure 23, mention a "three + two root" arrangement, which I have also represented.

In theory, a flagellar root should emerge from each basal body, but for some reason, Throndsen and Zingone (1997) mention: "a triple or three + one microtubular root runs from the left basal body," passing beneath the distal fiber and approaching the cell surface while passing the nucleus. This implies that there is only one flagellar root corresponding to the basal body of the left flagellum, and not for the right. The authors report, however, another flagellar root near the Golgi apparatus (which I have indeed represented in the lateral view image of the organism, also as three parallel pink lines), and I believe that this would actually be the flagellar root that emerges from the basal body of the right flagellum, extending through the cytoplasm in the Golgi apparatus region. I don't know if it is also close to the cell membrane.

Finally, you can see how the body scales and flagellar scales are arranged in the plasma membrane. Note also that the body scales are more spherical and larger (0.4 µm), with 14 concentric ridges, a narrow thickened rim, and a faint knob in the middle. There are also smaller body scales of 0.3 µm that have fewer ridges, up to only 9.

The flagellar scales are more irregularly "elliptical," measuring 0.3 x 0.2 µm. They also have a narrow rim, a faint central knob, and concentric ridges, numbering 7 to 10. These body and flagellar scales have also been represented to scale alongside the detailed representations of the three types of hair scales, in the image of the side view of the organism.

This is a cross-sectional representation of Dolichomastix tenuilepis. I've more or less depicted the same parts I explained in the side view image; I don't think there's anything else to explain here.

Finally, the dorsal and ventral views of the organism, which I constructed from Throndsen and Zingone (1997) Figure 10. In the dorsal view, note how the nucleus, mitochondrion, and microbody are "above" the chloroplast. The chloroplast encloses the pyrenoid, which is covered by the starch sheath, such that only a portion of the pyrenoid is visible because it is not covered by the starch sheath (the pyrenoid peduncle emerges from this area).

The eyespot would be located on the ventral side of the chloroplast. It is not visible in the dorsal view, but it is visible in the ventral view, appearing as a small dark spot. A close-up of the droplets that make up the single layer of the eyespot, or stigma, is included. The shape of the droplets is almost a direct copycat of Throndsen and Zingone (1997) Figure 18.

In the ventral view, note also that the chloroplast now appears to be "on top" of the other organelles, although it is actually the other way around. In that view, only the starch sheath is visible; the pyrenoid is enclosed, of course, but the area free of the starch sheath is not visible because it is located dorsally. The microbody is located between the dorsal area of ​​the pyrenoid and the nucleus, so in this ventral view representation, it is hidden by the starch sheath of the pyrenoid.

ヾ(´▽｀;)ゝ

Well, I really don't have anything else to say, except that I almost gave up on doing these illustrations because it was so complicated to read through the whole mess of Throndsen and Zingone's work (1997). I also fell asleep several times while writing this post; I hope I haven't written anything inappropriate.

Monomastix opisthostigma Scherffel 1912

So... how did I decide to draw this species?

Who knows? I remember considering doing something related to Paramastix conifera, an organism I'd illustrated before.

First of all, the illustrations here are free to use, and are also available on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license: you can use them freely, as long as it is not for commercial purposes (using them for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited, unless it is for a documentary, in any case you should contact me), and you must also attribute the authorship (like "DOTkamina 2026". Help me leave my mark!).

Monomastix opisthostigma is a strange organism. There isn't much information available about it; in fact, what's online is mostly reposted. Fortunately, I think it's almost enough to create the illustration.

First, I'll start with the sources used for the general cell body:

• "An image-based key: Monomastix (Chlorophyceae)". PhicoKey, A. L. Baker, 2017.
• "Chlorophya. Prasinophyta. Ulvophyceae". Katedra botaniky Přírodovědecké fakulty Univerzity Karlovy (KBPFUK) n.d.
• "Flagellate green algae from four water bodies in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Southeast Brazil". Mariângela Menezes and Carlos Eduardo de Mattos Bicudo. Hoehnea, 2008.
• "Monomastix Scherffel, 1912". AlgaeBase, 2013.
• "Monomastix minuta and M. opisthostigma (Chlorophyta, Prasinophyceae), two species new to polish flora". Joanna Picińska-Fałtynowicz. Polish Botanical Journal 48(1): 79-81. 2003.
• "Monomastix opisthostigma". Protist Information Server: images by Y. Tsukii 1998.
• "Monomastix opisthostigma". Protist Information Server: Protist Movies. 2007. 
• "Monomastix opisthostigma Scherffel 1912". AlgaeBase, 2020.

So, based on those sources, I also wrote the following, which you will see in this post: Monomastix belongs to the family Monomastigaceae, class Mamiellophyceae, phylum Chlorophyta, which in turn is included in the subkingdom Viridiplantae. This means that Monomastix is ​​included in the large group of organisms considered "plants and green algae sensu stricto" (green plants and green algae in the strict sense). 

Phylogenetically, Chlorophyta is related to other clades of Viridiplantae (Prasinococcus, Mesostigmatophyceae, Chara, etc.) which are then "distantly" related to the clade Embryophytes, the "land plants sensu stricto" as such... plants, that is. Chlorophyta (and therefore Monomastix) is the Viridiplantae clade most distantly related to land plants. Although included within Viridiplantae, it is closely related to the ancestor that gave rise to the clade, as well as the other two Viridiplantae relatives (the red algae, Rhodophyta, and Glaucophyta), which together with Viridiplantae make up the Archaeplastida clade.

Monomastix opisthostigma has several characteristics that can vary depending on the individual. It is described as having an ellipsoidal or nearly cylindrical to elongated shape, a slightly asymmetrical cell body with rounded ends (anterior and posterior), and a slightly inclined horizontal position. I'm not sure if this last point is related to the fact that, in the Protist Information Server micrographs, one end (the anterior) appears wider than the posterior. This differs from the schematic illustrations in Picińska-Fałtynowicz (2003) and Menezes and Bicudo (2008) (Figures 106-112), where the organism appears almost perfectly oval, and I would swear wider than it actually is. I have chosen to represent it as if the anterior end were slightly enlarged.

Note that the median trichocyst measures aprox. 4 µm in the illustration (that is an artistical decision). The size of M. opisthostigma can range from 14 to 21 µm in width and 6 to 10 µm in length. In Menezes and Bicudo (2008), it is mentioned that "there are usually two chloroplasts, sometimes one," but elsewhere I see that they refer to a single chloroplast, which, at the back of the cell, has a deep vertical incision... this means that a chloroplast is actually made up of two lobes connected by a junction at the back of the cell, of varying narrowness. I suppose that when this narrowing is so extreme, or doesn't exist at all, they refer to two chloroplasts as such.

Each chloroplast lobe has a pyrenoid in its middle, which I assume is covered in a starch sheath, as I infer from Menezes and Bicudo (2008) (Figures 106-112). An elliptical stigma may (or may not) be present at the back. The stigma is a structure that acts as an eye. Picińska-Fałtynowicz (2003) mentions that the stigma (or "eyespot") is red.

At the apical (anterior) end of the cell, there is a slight depression or indentation, easily visible in the drawing as a slight concave curve. There should be a groove there (which I haven't shown) from which the organism's single flagellum emerges. This flagellum is thin and tends to become thinner towards its tip. The flagellum may be attached to a "pro-basal body," as described in Protist Movies (2007). This is odd because I would expect flagella to have a basal body to anchor them. The "pro-basal body" is implied to be a simpler or "preceding" structure of the basal body, and it's also indicated with a question mark. Mysterious...

In the anterior portion, there is generally a single contractile vacuole; rarely, there may be two. The nucleus is also located anteriorly, though not as apically. Trichocysts are thought to act as a defense mechanism in other organisms: they are a type of extrusome (the ejectisomes of cryptomonads are also extrusomes) that release a kind of fibrous protein cords grouped into a spindle-like structure, which serves to damage or attack a potential predator. I would believe that the trichocysts of Monomastix do the same thing. When the cells are juveniles, they have one or two. Later, they can have three or four. According to Baker (2017) and Protist Movies (2007), up to seven. The trichocysts are elongated, 3 to 5 µm long, located parallel to each other, and sometimes absent according to Menezes and Bicudo (2008).

The endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, and mitochondrion are depicted near the nucleus, and their shapes and sizes are purely speculative; they are assumed to exist, as in almost any standard eukaryotic cell. In the rough endoplasmic reticulum, you will see many dots; these are the ribosomes concentrated in that structure. Additionally, several ribosomes are distributed throughout the cell in the illustration, as they should be in real life for any eukaryotic cell.

I have chosen to depict only one mitochondrion, but I don't know if there might be more; I haven't found any information on this. What I have found is that there is a single mitochondrion in other species related to M. opisthostigma, which are also included in the class Mamiellophyceae: Crustomastix didyma (Nakayama et al. 2000), Ostreococcus tauri (Joux et al. 2015), and Dolichomastix tenuilepis (Throndsen et al. 1997). Since they are included in the same class as Monomastix, I assume that M. opisthostigma could also have a single mitochondrion. You will also see that I have represented the mitochondrial cristae as if they were tubular, but that is also speculative.

This drawing can be considered part of the end of a phase. I finally blocked it out (girl M). There was no point in clinging to any more illusions.

ミヽ（。＞＜）ノ