An analysis of developmental timing in Blastocladiella emersonii sporulation

We propose a model of time regulation for the expression of the Blastocladiella emersonii sporulation phenotypes based on new methods (Soll, 1986) which analyse the effect of temperature on the rate limiting processes, i.e., "timers" of certain events during development. By using reciprocal shift experiments (transferring sporulating cells from 22 to 27 degrees C and vice versa) we characterized the timers of the phenotypes: septate zoosporangium, papillate zoosporangium, cleavage zoosporangium, and empty zoosporangium, considering the number of the components, sensitivity, duration, and the mutual dependency of each limiting factor. The timers for the first three phenotypes started at zero time of sporulation induction and acted in parallel. The fourth phenotype, empty zoosporangium, has a timer which appears to act sequentially to that of the papillate zoosporangium. We also studied the effects of polyoxin D, calcofluor white, and congo red on sporulation. The first drug prevents the appearance of the septate zoosporangium and the other two prevent the expression of the papillate zoosporangium. In spite of the morphological blockage, the zoosporogenesis proceeds, resulting in the formation of normal zoospores. These results are interpreted as additional evidence for the parallel model of control proposed here.