Chimeras and histocompatibility in the colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri.

Chimeras of B. schlosseri were prepared by pairwise combination of colonies sharing one allele at the fusibility gene locus (AD = AC chimeras). A frequent resorption of one of the partners was observed and the resorption time was shown to be significantly correlated with the relative size, the resorbing partner being usually the larger. Both in the whole chimeras, AD = AC, and in the separated partners, (AD)AC, the fusibility of AC was frequently altered. In AD = AC the fusion did not prevent entirely AC fusion with BC. The fusion frequency with BC was significantly higher than with BD and significantly higher in (AD)AC than in AD = AC. Repeated rejections with BC or both BC and BD, repeated fusions with BD, simultaneous or successive fusions and rejections especially with BD, over a period of several months, indicated a long lasting competitive interaction of AD and AC in (AD)AC chimeras. The persistence in these chimeras of the AD cell population was also confirmed by the chimeric electrophoretic pattern of PGI in most of them.