Oral Structure Development and Nuclear Behavior During Conjugation in Paramecium aurelia1

SYNOPSIS. Conjugation in Paramecium aurelia has been studied in live and sectioned cells and oral development studied following ultraviolet microbeam irradiation. The live cells allow a clear correlation to be made between nuclear behavior and gullet development. The paroral cone lies at the level of the buccal overture. The new oral area develops while the old one is still present, the latter structure being still visible after the conjugants have separated. Sectioned material confirms the fact of cytoplasmic fusion at the level of the paroral cones. It also confirms the appearance of new buccal organelles on the right side of the buccal overture of the pre-existing gullet. Ultraviolet microbeam irradiation of the buccal area shows that the posterior edge of the buccal overture must remain undisturbed for normal development. Irradiation of the anterior edge of the buccal overture also affects development. These results differ from earlier work on fissioning cells. Discussion of these differences leads to the conclusion that the factors controlling stomatogenesis are developmentally regulatory.     

Role of Cell Sorting in Pattern Formation in Dictyostelium discoideum

To examine the relationship between cell sorting and cell differentiation in the development of Dictyostelium discoideum , labeled cells grown in the absence of glucose [G(–) cells] and unlabeled cells grown in its presence [G(+) cells] were mixed and either allowed to undergo normal morphogenesis or cultured under submerged conditions. Changes in the distributions within a cell aggregate of labeled cells and cells stained with the conjugated antispore serum (prespore cells) were followed on the same sections by the methods of autoradiography and immunohistochemistry. In normal morphogenesis, differentiation of prespore cells apparently initiated and proceeded coincident with sorting out between G(+) and G(–) cells, during formation of a standing slug. By contrast, within an aggregate formed under submerged conditions, prespore cells began to differentiate long before G(+) and G(–) cells were sorted out, indicating that the cell sorting is not a prerequisite for the cell differentiation. The sorting out, however, brought about an accumulation of prespore cells in a hemisphere, thus producing a prestalk-prespore pattern within the aggregate.