Diverse modes of reproduction in the marine free-living ciliate Glauconema trihymene.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Most free-living ciliates reproduce by equal fission or budding during vegetative growth. In certain ciliates, reproduction occurs inside the cyst wall, viz. reproductive cysts, but more complex reproductive strategies have generally been thought to be confined to parasitic or symbiotic species, e.g. Radiophrya spp.

Results

In addition to equal fission, asymmetric binary division and reproductive cysts were discovered in the free-living bacterivorous scuticociliate Glauconema trihymene Thompson, 1966. Asymmetric division is an innate physiological state that can be induced by sufficient food, and the higher the food concentration, the longer the asymmetric division persists. During asymmetric division, nuclear and somatic structures divide with transiently arreste

SUBMITTER: Long H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2873486 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature