Nuclear transplant studies on the reduction in numbers of presumptive germ nuclei in exconjugants of Paramecium caudatum.

Nuclear differentiation in exconjugants of Paramecium caudatum is closely associated with a brief localization of the postzygotic nuclei near the opposite ends of the cell, with the germinal nucleus (micronucleus) in the anterior region and the somatic nuclei (macronuclei) in the posterior region. The posterior nuclei cannot regenerate to produce micronuclei when all four anterior nuclei are removed. There is no difference among the anterior four presumptive micronuclei, because, when any three of them were removed, the remaining nucleus was able to divide at each postconjugational fission and to persist as a micronucleus during the vegetative phase. This conclusion agrees with the results of transplanting a presumptive micronucleus into a vegetative cell. Cells during the vegetative phase, however, normally have only one micronucleus. Micronuclear number must be reduced to arrive at the uni-micronucleate condition after the stage of macro- and micronuclear differentiation. Elimination of supernumerary presumptive micronuclei, which had been indicated by morphological observations, was confirmed by the results of nuclear transplantation studies.