Malvin G M, Wood S C
Oxygen Transport Program, Lovelace Medical Foundation, Albuquerque, NM 87108.
Science. 1992 Mar 13;255(5050):1423-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1542790.
Hypoxia has been shown to elicit behavioral hypothermia in a number of different metazoan species, all with nervous systems. The protozoan, Paramecium caudatum, has no nervous system and was not expected to display behavioral hypothermia. However, this species was also found to select a lower temperature in a thermal gradient under hypoxic conditions. This response proved to be beneficial as survival of hypoxic paramecia was greatly increased at lower temperatures. This unicellular species may provide a useful model to investigate the cellular and molecular basis of adaptive thermoregulatory behavior.
缺氧已被证明会在许多不同的后生动物物种中引发行为性体温过低，这些物种都有神经系统。原生动物尾草履虫没有神经系统，因此预计不会出现行为性体温过低。然而，人们也发现该物种在缺氧条件下会在热梯度中选择较低的温度。这一反应被证明是有益的，因为在较低温度下，缺氧草履虫的存活率大大提高。这种单细胞物种可能为研究适应性体温调节行为的细胞和分子基础提供一个有用的模型。
