Autogamy in Allogromia laticollaris (Foraminifera)

SYNOPSIS. The life cycles of 2 strains of Allogromia laticollaris (CSH and TPA) raised on experimentally restricted diets have been studied. Cloned cultures of the strains differed in nutritional requirements for continuous reproduction. The TPA strain was more fecund. Both strains have a basically apogamic (asexual) life cycle; only occasionally were gamonts (sexually reproducing individuals) produced. They were autogamous (self-fertilizing) and fusion of the gametes took place within the parental test.
We found in CSH clones a regular alternation of vesicularly nucleated and compactly multinucleated diploid generations. The details of the life cycle of either strain are not known well enough to be able to construct life cycle diagrams more meaningful than that of Arnold. The 2 strains studied differ in cytologic and nuclear detail from each other and from the strain studied by Arnold.