Chapter 4 Tetrahymena as a Laboratory Organism: Useful Strains, Cell Culture, and Cell Line Maintenance

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A key to the usefulness of Tetrahymena as a laboratory organism is its exceptionally fast growth rate under simple and inexpensive culture conditions. With a doubling time under 2 h, Tetrahymena is one of the fastest multiplying free-living eukaryotic cells. This chapter describes useful inbred and mutant strains, growth media, and some basic methods for laboratory storage and culture of Tetrahymena cells. Panels of meiotic segregants and terminal assortants derived from heterozygous progeny of inbred strains B × C3 are used to map genetic loci and DNA polymorphisms to the micronuclear and macronuclear genomes. Tetrahymena cells possess two efficient and sufficient routes of nutrient uptake: phagocytosis of particulate matter and active transport of nutrients in solution. Deionized and distilled H2O of high purity as well as dedicated glassware are used to make media, as Tetrahymena cells are sensitive to impurities in the water and soap residue on the glassware.

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