volvox
pronunciation
How to pronounce volvox in British English:
UK ['vɒlvɒks]
How to pronounce volvox in American English:
US [ 'vɑlvɑks]
-
- Noun:
- type genus of the Volvocaceae; minute pale green flagellates occurring in tiny spherical colonies; minute flagella rotate the colony about an axis
Word Origin
- volvox (n.)
- genus of fresh-water algae, 1798, from Latin volvere "to roll," from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve," with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects (cognates: Sanskrit valate "turns round," ulvam "womb, vulva;" Lithuanian valtis "twine, net," vilnis "wave," apvalus "round;" Old Church Slavonic valiti "roll, welter," vlŭna "wave;" Greek eluo "wind, wrap," helix "spiral object," eilein "to turn, squeeze;" Gothic walwjan "to roll;" Old English wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk, spiral-shelled mollusk;" Old High German walzan "to roll, waltz;" Old Irish fulumain "rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel"). So called from their motion.
Example
- 1. The gene that stops the body cells of volvox reproducing is called rega .
- 2. One creature that has managed the trick-separately from plants , animals and fungi , who are the real experts in the field-is an alga called volvox carteri .
- 3. Clearly , volvox evolved from similar algae that exist only as single cells , but until now the genetics of the process have been obscure .
- 4. When that happened , individual cells could turn their reproductive capacity on or off according to the function they served in volvox 's body .
- 5. But volvox shows the sort of thing to look for : a gene that stops reproduction in single-celled creatures and has been co-opted to do a new job .