Prediction of structural homologs to functional RNAs involved in determination of life span of Paramecium tetraurelia

mecium has an intrinsic length of clonal life span which corresponds to organismal life span in multicellular organisms (Sonneborn, 1954). For the final purpose of identifying the jumyo gene, the causal determinant of the clonal life span of Paramecium tetraurelia (Takagi et al., 1989), we examined differences in gene expression between wildtype stock 51 and its mutant d4-SL4 which has an extremely short clonal life span (Takagi et al., 1987), and isolated three genes that showed expression profiles dependent on clonal age (Tanabe et al., 2002). Of the three genes, MS2, cloned as a 151 Jpn. J. Protozool. Vol. 39, No. 2. (2006)