Abrupt increase in UV sensitivity at late log-phase of growth in Paramecium tetraurelia

In this study, changes in UV sensitivity, a parameter of the clonal aging that has been studied in the daily reisolation culture, were examined in the logarithmically growing Paramecium culture. Cells in logarithmically growing cultures are thought to change the internal states under rapidly changing external conditions. In contrast, cells in daily reisolation cultures gradually change the internal states, the process being called clonal development and aging, under the external conditions that are kept almost constant. Cells were sampled at regular intervals, irradiated with UV, and examined for UV sensitivity assessed by the clonal survival. We found that log-phase cells showed low sensitivity to UV until they reached 2,000-3,000 cells/ml, and beyond that cell density, abruptly became highly UV sensitive. The extent of this increase in UV sensitivity was similar to that between two age groups, 130 fissions of clonal age apart. When cells from a culture of 2,000-3,000 cells/ml were resuspended in culture medium at various cell densities, they changed to UV sensitive only when the cultures reached over approximately 2,600 cells/ml. These results suggest that paramecia become UV sensitive in response to change in the nutrient level when cell density exceeds 2,000-3,000 cells/ml.