Skip to main content
The Journal of Cell Biology logoLink to The Journal of Cell Biology
. 1978 Dec 1;79(3):727–736. doi: 10.1083/jcb.79.3.727

Scalar constraints in Tetrahymena evolution. Quantitative basal body variations within and between species

PMCID: PMC2110273  PMID: 103884

Abstract

Tetrahymenas of 17 species of the T. pyriformis complex have been stained with protargol and analyzed for numbers of basal bodies in half cells just before cell division. At this stage, cells of all strains manifest considerable variation in numbers of basal bodies; the coefficient of variation (sigma/m) is usually between 0.05 and 0.10. Much of this variability is observed in cells in the same nutritional state, at the same stage of the growth cycle, and in the same part of the life cycle. The basal body variability may be related to the variation in macronuclear DNA content that results from the imprecise amitotic macronuclear division. With a few exceptions, strains of different species are difficult to distinguish on the basis of basal body numbers. The species means in the samples examined show a range only from 234 (T. furgasoni) to 481 (T. capricornis), about a twofold difference. This limited variation in the means suggests that these organisms are constrained within narrow limited by some scalar function of their organismic design, which prevents an evolutionary size dispersion--even though molecular scrambling has occurred in the complex at an appreciable rate for a very long evolutionary interval.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (898.0 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allen S. L., Gibson I. Intersyngenic variations in the esterases of axenic stocks of Paramecium aurelia. Biochem Genet. 1971 Apr;5(2):161–181. doi: 10.1007/BF00485643. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Allen S. L., Li C. I. Nucleotide sequence divergence among DNA fractions of different syngens of Tetrahymena pyriformis. Biochem Genet. 1974 Sep;12(3):213–233. doi: 10.1007/BF00486091. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Allen S. L., Weremiuk S. L. Intersyngenic variations in the esterases and acid phosphatases of Tetrahymena pyriformis. Biochem Genet. 1971 Apr;5(2):119–133. doi: 10.1007/BF00485640. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Berger J. D., Schmidt H. J. Regulation of macronuclear DNA content in Paramecium tetraurelia. J Cell Biol. 1978 Jan;76(1):116–126. doi: 10.1083/jcb.76.1.116. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Borden D., Whitt G. S., Nanney D. L. Electrophoretic characterization of classical Tetrahymena pyriformis strains. J Protozool. 1973 Nov;20(5):693–700. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1973.tb03601.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cleffmann G. Amount of DNA produced during extra S phases in Tetrahymena. J Cell Biol. 1975 Jul;66(1):204–209. doi: 10.1083/jcb.66.1.204. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Cleffmann G. Regulierung der DNS-Menge im Makronucleus von Tetrahymena. Exp Cell Res. 1968 Apr;50(1):193–207. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(68)90407-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Goldbach R. W., Arnberg A. C., van Bruggen E. F., Defize J., Borst P. The structure of Tetrahymena pyriformis mitochondrial DNA. I. Strain differences and occurrence of inverted repetitions. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1977 Jul 5;477(1):37–50. doi: 10.1016/0005-2787(77)90159-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Johmann C. A., Gorovsky M. A. An electrophoretic comparison of the histones of various strains of Tetrahymena pyriformis. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1976 Aug;175(2):694–699. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(76)90561-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nanney D. L., Doerder F. P. Transitory Heterosis in Numbers of Basal Bodies in TETRAHYMENA PYRIFORMIS. Genetics. 1972 Oct;72(2):227–237. doi: 10.1093/genetics/72.2.227. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Nanney D. L., McCoy J. W. Characterization of the species of the Tetrahymena pyriformis complex. Trans Am Microsc Soc. 1976 Oct;95(4):664–682. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Nanney D. L. The pattern of replication of cortical units in Tetrahymena. Dev Biol. 1971 Oct;26(2):296–305. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(71)90128-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Vaudaux P. E., Williams N. E., Frankel J., Vaudaux C. Inter-strain variability of structural proteins in Tetrahymena. J Protozool. 1977 Aug;24(3):453–458. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1977.tb04775.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. WILLIAMS N. E., SCHERBAUM O. H. Morphogenetic events in normal and synchronously dividing Tetrahymena. J Embryol Exp Morphol. 1959 Jun;7:241–256. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Cell Biology are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES