Mate-killer (mu) particles in Paramecium aurelia: further mathematical models for metagon distribution

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Abstract
This paper examines further mathe-matical models proposed to explain the frequency distribution of sensitive cells (cells without mu particles and metagon) at successive fissions after loss of the M genes in mate-killer Paramecium aurelia. Tests are developed for the hypotheses that the metagons are (a) initially in clumps of 2 or 3, which break down at random, (b) gradually destroyed in a manner analogous to radioactive decay, (c) distributed unequally to the two daughter cells at each fission. Only the previously tested metagon division hypothesis (that each metagon has a 1 in 5 chance of dividing into two after any cell fission) and the unequal distribution hypothesis (that metagons always have a 2/3rds chance of going to one daughter and a l/3rd chance of going to the other) fit the observed data reasonably well. The division hypothesis is to be preferred on the basis of other data regarding the behaviour of cells from the eleventh fission. None of the models so far considered may be biologically realistic.