Gradients of proliferation of ciliary basal bodies and the determination of the position of the oral primordium in Tetrahymena

Abstract

The pattern of proliferation of new basal bodies in ciliary rows (somatic proliferation) in Tetrahymena was observed. Starved and refed cells were used, because proliferation in these cells is more pronounced than that under other circumstances. The formation of new basal bodies is locally determined by the position of "old" pre-existing basal body (short range determination). However, the probability of proliferation associated with any given "old" basal body differs very much. This probability is determined by the spatial coordinates of the particular region of the cell (long range determination); however some randomness in this process was also observed. Two different gradients of proliferation were found. The first gradient is circumferential with a maximum number of new basal bodies added in ciliary rows n, 1, 2 and 3 and the minimum number added in ciliary rows 7, 8 and 9. The second is an antero-posterior gradient with the highest number of new basal bodies added in the midbody region. Moreover, at least in some cases, new oral primordia first appear, as a random proliferation of new basal bodies adjacent to a few old cilia of ciliary row No. 1, resembling somatic proliferation. Then 2,3 or even more clumps of basal bodies appear, each having one old cilium posteriorly. These clumps, however, are not linear groups within the ciliary row but instead they form small fields of basal bodies. These findings suggest, that the same two-gradient system for new basal body addition operates during somatic proliferation and also determines the position of the new oral primordium as the site of the highest gradient value at the intersection of two gradients.