GENETIC ANALYSIS OF MATING-TYPE DIFFERENTIATION IN PARAMECIUM TETRAURELIA

ABSTRACT Whereas each of the two complementary mating types, O and E, of Paramecium tetraulrelia normally shows cytoplasmic inheritance, an abnormal heredity of mating type was observed in the progeny of crosses between two stocks of different geographical origin of Paramecium tetraurelia(stock 51 and stock 32). The modified pattern of mating-type inheritance was shown to result from the interaction of the two wild-type alleles at the locus mtD (mtD51 and mtD32), leading to a new differentiated state O*, different from the normal O and E states observed in both stock 51 and stock 32 cells. The genetic analysis of O* clones showed that the O* phenotype involves both a new heritable cytoplasmic state and possibly a nuclear change which can be transmitted through conjugation and segregates in a Mendelian fashion. All the data can be interpreted if the assumption is made that mating-type determination is achieved only by the commitment or noncommitment to the expression of mating-type E, and that this commitment may simply reflect the activation or nonactivation of the locus mtD, under the influence of one or two "cytoplasmic factors" including the product of the gene mtD itself.