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MBE Advance Access published online on September 22, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm203
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Article

Non-Mendelian Inheritance of Paralogs of Two Cytoskeletal Genes in the Ciliate Chilodonella uncinata

T. Robinson1 and L. A. Katz1,2

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College
2 Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, UMass-Amherst

Corresponding author: Laura A. Katz, Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, 413-535-3825, Fax: 413-585-3786, Lkatz{at}smith.edu

Received for publication June 4, 2007. Revision received July 23, 2007. Accepted for publication August 24, 2007.

Recognition of the role of non-Mendelian inheritance is on the rise, particularly as epigenetic phenomena are shown to shape the transformation of genomes into phenotypes. Ciliates provide a model system in which to explore the role of epigenetics because ciliates have both a germline (micronuclear) and somatic (macronuclear) genome within every cell. In the ciliate Chilodonella uncinata, the macronucleus is extensively fragmented such that many genes end up on their own chromosomes. Hence, it is possible to track the fate of unlinked genes within macronuclei of C. uncinata. Here we demonstrate that the pattern of inheritance in isolates of C. uncinata is complex and involves both Mendelian transmission between micronuclei and macronuclei, and epigenetic phenomena. The macronuclei from two isolates of C. uncinata and their progeny share identical rDNA loci and two identical beta-tubulin paralogs, yet have different actin paralogs and some beta-tubulin paralogs that are not shared. We propose a model in which all of the divergent paralogs are present in the ciliate micronuclei. Under this model, different paralogs are retained in the developing nuclei following conjugation. We further speculate that an epigenetic mechanism, such as RNAi, is involved in selective retention of specific paralogs within lines. This system allows the exploration of epigenetic phenomena that shape somatic genomes, and provides parallels to studies of the development of somatic nuclei within animals.


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