Maintenance and regulation of cellular handedness in Tetrahymena

The left-handed phenotype of Tetrahymena thermophila (LH) is a global mirror image of its right-handed counterpart (RH). LH cells are 'wound' in the opposite direction from that of RH cells with respect to the placement of all structures that are asymmetrically disposed on the cell circumference. However, the local geometry of ciliary rows, including the asymmetrically placed microtubule bands and other accessory structures, is identical in RH and LH cells. Populations of LH cells grow more slowly than those of RH cells, probably because of nutritional problems due to faulty construction of the cell mouth. LH cells, like RH cells, conjugate in a homopolar configuration, while LH cells mate with RH cells in a heteropolar union which suffices to initiate the conjugal nuclear events but is insufficient to allow survival of progeny. Subclonal analyses indicate that reversion of the LH to the RH form is relatively rare. However, the frequency of reversion is greatly increased by conditions that promote the formation of doublets by fission arrest. An analysis of intermediate doublet forms in such cultures strongly suggests that reversion takes place through a specific pathway, with LH-LH doublets regulating to LH-RH forms that then may give rise to RH singlets. The origin and fate of the LH-RH intermediate forms can be explained by applying a modified polar coordinate model of positional information with the proviso that there is a preferred direction for the intercalation of new positional values.