The mating-type substances of Paramecium bursaria

Abstract

The detached cilia from sexually reactive cells of Paramecium bursaria will agglutinate with the cilia of intact sexually reactive animals of a complementary mating type. No such reaction will occur if incompetent cells are used or if the cells are of the same mating type. Particulates other than cilia do not adhere to tester cells; the cilia which carry the specific mating-type substances are restricted to the ventro-lateral surface of the animal.Studies of the heat inactivation of the ability of detached cilia to agglutinate confirm in detail the hypothesis of Metz which holds that cell unions leading to conjugation are brought about by the interaction of two pairs of complementary substances, A and a and B and b; the former pair of substances is more heat labile than the latter. The data suggest that animals of each of the four mating types carry a unique combination of two substances, namely, AB, aB, ab, and Ab.