Premium
SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN THE DINOFLAGELLATE NOCTILUCA MILIARIS SURIRAY 1, 2
Author(s) -
Zingmark Richard G.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1970.tb02369.x
Subject(s) - biology , zygote , sexual reproduction , dinoflagellate , mitosis , meiosis , zoology , reproduction , gametogenesis , botany , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , embryo , embryogenesis , gene
SUMMARY The existence of sexuality in dinoflagellates has long been controversial. Events described as the differentiation and release of isogametes and sexual fusion in cultures of Noctiluca miliaris were studied with the light microscope. In cultures fed. twice weekly with Dunaliella sp., kept under a 12‐hr day, 12‐hr night light regime at 25–30 ft‐c and held at 18 C, certain vegetative cells, termed gametocyte mother cells, were observed to undergo what is interpreted as meiosis. This was followed by several synchronous mitotic divisions occurring at 45‐min to 1‐hr intervals and. resulting in the production of up to 1024 mature uniflagellated isogametes attached on the surface of the gametocyte mother cell body. After several hours gametes now seen swimming freely in the media were observed to fuse and form zygotes. One zygote subsequently became vacuolated and eventually differentiated into a small but reasonably typical vegetative cell. The life cycle of N. miliaris appears thus to be of the diplontic type. The taxonomic relationships between Noctiluca and other mesocaryotic dinoflagellates are discussed.