Novel features of computer-simulated clonal life of Paramecium caudatum.

The clone of the ciliated protozoan Paramecium caudatum has the immaturity period of about 60 fissions and the lifespan of about 600 fissions. These life cycle figures have been depicted through laboratory experiments that allow continuous cell divisions for hundreds, which never occur in nature. We here constructed the nature-mimicking model culture that alternated the log- and stationary phases to allow conjugation, and computer-simulated the age structure modifying parameters such as cell distributions to start the culture, fission rates, death rates, immaturity periods, probabilities of conjugation, proportions of transplantation and so on.