ArticlePLoS biology2013
Selecting one of several mating types through gene segment joining and deletion in Tetrahymena thermophila.
Article in PLoS biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 46 papers.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Cip1, a CDK regulator, determines heterothallic mating or homothallic selfing in a protist.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
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- A seven-sex species recognizes self and non-self mating-type via a novel protein complex.eLife · 2024Article
- On the evolution of variation in sexual reproduction through the prism of eukaryotic microbes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Review
- Complexity vs linearity: relations between functional traits in a heterotrophic protist.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Possible stochastic sex determination in Bursaphelenchus nematodes.Nature communications · 2022Article
- The Type VI Secretion Systems in Plant-Beneficial Bacteria Modulate Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Interactions in the Rhizosphere.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- MAR1 links membrane adhesion to membrane merger during cell-cell fusion in Chlamydomonas.Developmental cell · 2021Article
- Tetrahymena meiosis: Simple yet ingenious.PLoS genetics · 2021Review
- Evolutionary Plasticity of Mating-Type Determination Mechanisms in Paramecium aurelia Sibling Species.Genome biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Evolution of the mating type gene pair and multiple sexes iniScience · 2021Article
- HAP2-Mediated Gamete Fusion: Lessons From the World of Unicellular Eukaryotes.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Drivers of Mating Type Composition in Tetrahymena thermophila.Genome biology and evolution · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The unicellular eukaryote Tetrahymena thermophila has seven mating types. Cells can mate only when they recognize cells of a different mating type as non-self. As a ciliate, Tetrahymena separates its germline and soma into two nuclei. During growth the somatic nucleus is responsible for all gene transcription while the germline nucleus remains silent. During mating, a new somatic nucleus is differentiated from a germline nucleus and mating type is decided by a stochastic process. We report here that the somatic mating type locus contains a pair of genes arranged head-to-head. Each gene encodes a mating type-specific segment and a transmembrane domain that is shared by all mating types. Somatic gene knockouts showed both genes are required for efficient non-self recognition and successful mating, as assessed by pair formation and progeny production. The germline mating type locus consists of a tandem array of incomplete gene pairs representing each potential mating type. During mating, a complete new gene pair is assembled at the somatic mating type locus; the incomplete genes of one gene pair are completed by joining to gene segments at each end of germline array. All other germline gene pairs are deleted in the process. These programmed DNA rearrangements make this a fascinating system of mating type determination.
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