AGE-RELATED TOTAL PROTEIN-CONTENT OF PARENTAL CELLS AND TOTAL PROTEIN-CONTENT OF THEIR EXCONJUGANT PROGENY IN PARAMECIUM-PRIMAURELIA

Previous cytofluorometric analyses on Paramecium primaurelia, stock 90 , provided information that cell inability or capacity to mate are cor related to variations in their total protein content (TPC). Besides, a ge-associated protein decrease was suggested to take place during the maturity period. This work follows the assumption that cells, conjugat ing early or late in their maturity, give rise to offspring showing a higher or a lower TPC, respectively, and that the TPC is in some way l inked to the well known relation between increased age of conjugant ce lls and decreased length of immaturity period of their progeny. Isogen ic parental lines of stock 90, maintained in exponential growth phase up to their clonal decline, were regularly allowed to mate at increasi ng fission ages during their maturity period, as long as they produced viable offspring. Firstly, cytofluorometrically measured TPC decrease d in aging parental lines. It was subsequently found that exconjugant progeny derived from younger or older parents exhibit a higher or a lo wer TPC, respectively. Finally, a shortening of the immaturity period in progeny derived from parental cells of increased age is assumed to be related to the TPC variations.