According to Forney, the micronucleus undergoes mitosis, but the macronucleus divides another way, called an amitotic, or non-mitotic, mechanism.

The chromosomes in the Tetrahymena micronucleus terminate in t-loops, but the minichromosomes in its macronucleus lack t-loops and are simply capped by a tenacious binding protein.

The macronucleus controls the cell's other functions. When the cells mate, the micronucleus splinters into fragments, which in turn replicate to form many smaller chromosomes that become the ...

As the contents of the micronucleus are copied into the macronucleus, anything that doesn’t contain instructions for making proteins—the so-called “non-coding DNA”—is ruthlessly pruned.

The original macronucleus then withers away, leaving the new macronucleus and the micronucleus, both of which divide as the cell divides into identical daughter cells, each with a new set of nuclei.

A micronucleus, on the other hand, isn’t so lucky. Micronuclei (MN) form when a chromosome gets separated from the pack during mitosis, resulting in the construction of a secondary nuclear membrane ...

Study: Genetic determinants of micronucleus formation in vivo. Image Credit: Dimarion/Shutterstock.com Background Genomic instability and extracellular MN accumulation are hallmarks of various ...

The original macronucleus then withers away, leaving the new macronucleus and the micronucleus, both of which divide as the cell divides into identical daughter cells, each with a new set of nuclei.

Paramecium are ciliates, members of a phylum of protists that possess both germline and somatic genomes housed in functionally distinct nuclei — the micronucleus and macronucleus, respectively ...

The macronucleus controls the everyday functions of the cell, while the micronucleus deals with its complicated sex life. Mating is called conjugation, and involves swapping genes from the ...

Paramecia have two nuclei: a germinal micronucleus that is transmitted during sexual reproduction and a somatic macronucleus -- resulting from the latter -- where the cell's genes are expressed.