Fitness tradeoffs between spores and nonaggregating cells can explain the coexistence of diverse genotypes in cellular slime molds.

ABSTRACT: Cellular slime molds, including the well-studied Dictyostelium discoideum, are amoebae whose life cycle includes both a single-cellular and a multicellular stage. To achieve the multicellular stage, individual amoebae aggregate upon starvation to form a fruiting body made of dead stalk cells and reproductive spores, a process that has been described in terms of cooperation and altruism. When amoebae aggregate they do not perfectly discriminate against nonkin, leading to chimeric fruiting bodies. Within chimeras, complex interactions among genotypes have been documented, which should theoretically reduce genetic diversity. This is however inconsistent with the great diversity of genotypes found in nature. Recent work has shown that a little-studied component of D. discoideum fitness--the lo

SUBMITTER: Tarnita CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4352809 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature