Fig. 2.

Silencing of DIE5 disrupts nuclear events during conjugation. (A) Progeny from conjugation treated with RNAi. Survival (%) and phenotype of the marker genes are shown. Both parental strains for conjugation were homozygous for Mendelian recessive mutant alleles of different marker genes (pwA and pwB; required for ciliary reversal); thus, successful conjugation should produce the wild-type phenotype of backward swimming, while failure in either nuclear exchange, fertilization, or formation of the new macronucleus should result in the mutant phenotype, i.e., no backward swimming upon stimulation. (B) Representative DAPI-stained Paramecium exconjugants with normal and defective cytological phenotypes observed after RNAi treatments. Each picture contains a single cell with or without the new macronucleus (arrowheads) and old macronuclear fragments. Phenotypic classes were assigned to white, gray, or black, as indicated below the pictures and plotted in the graphs in panel C. mac, macronucleus.