Reactivation of ethanol-calcium-isolated cilia from Tetrahymena pyriformis

Cilia isolated from Tetrahymena after ciliary shedding is induced by the addition of CaCl2 or other salts to cells suspended in an ethanol solution (4, 6, 11) have been studied chemically and enzymatically (4, 6, 11, 12, 13), but until now have never been shown to be capable of motility in the presence of ATP. In contrast to this, Gibbons (7) has demonstrated the reactivation of glycerol-isolated cilia by techniques similar to those developed for grasshopper sperm tails (8) and Polytoma flagella (2). However, the glycerol technique is much less satisfactory than the ethanol-calcium method for isolating pure cilia. This paper describes the reactivation, which can be obtained with ATP or ADP, of cilia isolated by an ethanol-calcium method (6), followed by glycerination or other treatments.