Cellular Segregation and Heterocytic Dominance in Hydra

Abstract

Hydra heterocytes—that is, hydra containing cells from both normal and mutant animals, were used for studying some developmental properties of mixed cell populations. Cells which initially had originated from a nonbudding mutant, and which subsequently became part of a heterocyte of normal appearance, were able to proliferate, to segregate, to come off as buds, and to express their phenotype in those buds. Furthermore, the heterocytes underwent a transformation in which the mutant phenotype eventually became dominant in all instances.