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Gamones and mating types in the genus Blepharisma and their possible taxonomic application

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2009

Akio Miyake  and
Lea K. Bleyman
Akio Miyake
Affiliation:
Istituto di Zoologia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy, and The Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, U.S.A.
Lea K. Bleyman
Affiliation:
Istituto di Zoologia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy, and The Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, U.S.A.

Summary

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Mating types I and II of Blepharisma japonicum v. intermedium excrete gamones 1 (blepharmone J) and 2 (blepharismone) respectively. The gamone of one type transforms cells of the other type so that they can conjugate with each other. We found that three other species, B. americanum, B. musculus and B. stoltei, have two types of cells homologous to those in B. japonicum; one (type II) excretes a factor which has the same activity as gamone 2 of B. japonicum, the other (type I) responds to this gamone by cell union. Type I cells of these species also excrete a gamone which induces pairs in type II cells of particular strains. Complementarity for mating is observed in some combinations of the two types.

These results indicate that each of the four species has at least one pair of complementary mating types, I and II, with the gamones of the type II's being the same molecule, blepharismone, while gamones of type I's are species- or syngen-specific blepharmone. These generic and specific gamones can be utilized to clarify existing taxonomic and evolutionary questions in the genus Blepharisma.

Type
Research Article
Information
Genetics Research , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 267 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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