Doublets of the unicellular organism Euplotes vannus (Alveolata, Ciliophora, Euplotida): the morphogenetic patterns of the ciliary and nuclear apparatuses associated with cell division

Ciliated protists are one of the most diverse and highly differentiated group among unicellular organisms. Doublets occur in ciliates when two cells fuse into a single individual. Doublets contain two major cellular components (either cell in a doublet) and have traditionally been considered as developmental anomalies. Nevertheless, doublets can divide or even conjugate effectively, which may represent dispersal forms of the life stages. In addition, morphogenesis, as an important process in the life cycle, will provide important insights into the complex differentiation mechanism and various physiological phenomena. However, morphogenetic studies focusing on doublets of ciliates are very limited, which has become an obstacle to understand their complete life history. Here we isolated a doublet strain from the marine species Euplotes vannus (Müller, 1786) Diesing, 1850 and investigated its morphogenetic events during asexual reproduction. Our results indicate that: (1) the opisthe’s oral primordium develops de novo beneath the cortex; (2) the frontoventral and transverse cirral anlagen, cirrus I/1, and marginal anlagen in both dividers develop de novo separately; (3) the dorsal kinety anlagen, the three rightmost ones of which produce three caudal cirri for the proter, occur within the parental structures in the mid-body region; (4) the opisthe acquires two caudal cirri, one from the end of each two rightmost kineties; and (5) there are two macronuclei and one micronucleus in the doublet and they divide amitotically and mitotically, respectively. Finally, we speculate that this special differentiation may be an adaptive form to adverse environments.