The dicyemid Mesozoa as an integrated system for morphogenetic studies. I. Description, isolation and maintenance.

The morphological simplicity of the dicyemid Mesozoa is such as to allow mapping of enery individual cell during the development of the organisms. Individual cells are of a size amenable to micromanipulation and a number of potential morphogenetic makers is readily apparent. The possibility of raising the animals in vitro and obtaining developmental mutants makes these organisms excellent candidates for use as an integrated system to correlate cytodifferentiation and morphogenesis with genetic control. An axenic, nearly defined, medium in which the misozoans can be kept for over three months has been developed. Methods for isolating and maintaining the organisms are described.