The grapes of incompatibility.
When two colonies of the tunicate Botryllus contact each other, they either fuse into a single colony or mount a destructive reaction, which keeps them apart. Which of the two reactions takes place is determined by a single, highly polymorphic fusion/histocompatibility (FuHC) locus. Recent communications report the cloning and characterization of the FuHC locus and suggest that its function may be to protect against parasitism by conspecific stem cells.
Klein
Jan
J
Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 208 Mueller, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
D000818:Animals; D002459:Cell Fusion; D008285:Major Histocompatibility Complex / Q000502:physiology*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology; D018183:Transplantation Chimera / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D014561:Urochordata / Q000276:immunology
D015800:Protozoan Proteins