The relationship between the excess-delay phenomenon and temperature-sensitive periods in Tetrahymena thermophila

Although temperatures of 37.5 and 39 degrees C allow continuous and rapid exponential growth of wild type Tetrahymena thermophila, sudden shifts up to these temperatures can bring about long excess-delays of cell division with accompanying resorption of developing oral primordia. A characteristic parameter of this delay-phenomenon is the physiological transition point, before which delays are maximal and after which they are negligible. When measured at a restrictive temperature that does not induce excess delays (36 degrees C), the end of the temperature-sensitive period of the cell division arrest of mutant cdaA1 precedes the physiological transition point, that of cdaH1 roughly coincides with it, while the entire temperature-sensitive period of cdaC2 comes after the physiological transition point. When cdaA1 cells are exposed to 37.5 degrees C or above, the manifestations of temperature sensitivity are drastically affected: the estimate of the end of the temperature-sensitive period (the execution point) becomes spuriously late, and the characteristic division arrest following heat shocks is not manifested. The differential effects of the higher restrictive temperatures on cdaH1 are most subtle, whereas those on cdaC2 are negligible. We conclude that the excess-delay phenomenon involves a set-back of genemediated processes occurring at specific stages of the cell cycle.