Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Dictyostelids pp 193–217Cite as

Social Selection in the Cellular Slime Moulds

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

Starvation triggers a complex series of intercellular interactions in the cellular slime mould amoebae. As a result the amoebae aggregate, form a coherent multicellular structure with division of labour and, eventually, differentiate into a fruiting body made up of a stalk and a spore mass. Whether an amoeba dies and forms part of the stalk or becomes a stress-resistant spore depends both on pre-existing biases and on post-starvation signalling between amoebae. Mutual communication permits one amoeba to influence the phenotype, and therefore affect the fitness, of another. The implication is that social selection has been a major factor in the evolution of cooperative behaviour in these amoebae.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/550897/social-behaviour-animal

  2. 2.

    The terms ‘Dictyostelid’ ‘CSM’ and ‘social amoeba’ are used interchangeably.

  3. 3.

    By conventional natural selection we mean a process of selection that makes an amoeba adapted to its physical and biotic environments, with the added implicit assumption that the environment created by conspecifics plays at best a minor role. The approach is analogous to considering a physical property as resulting from the behaviour of independent particles or a chemical property as ‘colligative’.

  4. 4.

    For example, minor differences in stored nutritional reserves.

  5. 5.

    Soil microorganisms can take active steps to defend themselves against stress. Even in the CSMs, a starved amoeba can encyst itself (see later). This does not affect the argument.

  6. 6.

    Ipso facto, morphological transition via self-organisation oes away with the requirement that intermediate stages be adaptive (see Newman and Forgacs 2005). The evolution of fruiting bodies with an extracellular stalk bundle starting from single-celled fruiting bodies also could have been favoured by the purely physical consideration that it is harder to bend or break a bundle of cylinders than a single cylinder (Kaushik and Nanjundiah 2003).

  7. 7.

    Bonner (2013 and this book) advances the more extreme null hypothesis that morphological differences between CSMs are neutral—they are due to chance, not selection; also see Bonner and Lamont (2005).

  8. 8.

    Or in an environment that at any given time is the same for all individuals.

  9. 9.

    Unless some phenotypes are neutral relative to one another (Bonner, 2013 and this book).

  10. 10.

    And can lead to non-intuitive outcomes, for example stable polymorphisms in asexual populations of non-interacting individuals (Rainey et al. 2000; Dean 2005).

  11. 11.

    In particular, if the loci in question are not sex-linked.

  12. 12.

    A signal from A to B contributes to the fitness of B, and via reciprocal communication, feeds back on A. The Darwin–Fisher model of sexual selection driven by female choice is a classic example.

  13. 13.

    For example, if each individual in a group of three can exhibit any one of three phenotypes, the number of group phenotypes is at least 9.

  14. 14.

    The signal-receptor systems that are responsible for intercellular communication can evolve too, by a different variant of natural selection known as “signal selection”: Zahavi 2006.

  15. 15.

    For example growth rate, the time required to complete development, migration and oriented movement (taxis), and, reproduction or cell death.

  16. 16.

    As of today most evolutionary experiments on the CSMs have been restricted to a single life cycle, but the situation is changing (Kuzdzal-Fick et al. 2011).

  17. 17.

    Spatial and temporal gene expression patterns have been studied in detail only in Dictyostelium discoideum (Bonner 1967; Olive 1975; Jermyn et al. 1989; Kessin 2001; Chen et al. 2007).

  18. 18.

    CSMs have also been found in water bodies and on trees (Olive 1975; O’Dell 2007; Sathe et al. 2010). In neither case have life cycles been properly studied. If they have an aquatic life cycle, it has not been studied. Recently a CSM was isolated from an infected human eye; the possibility that CSMs may be pathogens is new (Reddy et al. 2010).

  19. 19.

    All Dictyostelids form fruiting bodies, but their forms are varied. The stalk can be branched or unbranched, cellular or extracellular, and when cellular, made up of live or dead cells. The arrangement of cells in the stalk can differ from species to species. See Bonner (1967) and Raper (1984) for details. In species where all cells form spores and each spore secretes an extracellular stalk, the stalk bundle may confer a group advantage via the collective behaviour of cells that act independently; see Kaushik and Nanjundiah (2003).

  20. 20.

    It has been suggested that quorum sensing may be a form of ‘reproductive restraint’, namely a prudent cessation of growth and cell division when the food supply becomes poor; see (Werfel and Bar-Yam 2004). However, there are sound arguments against this and similar models of group-level benefit; see Zahavi (2005).

  21. 21.

    Work with 2-dimensional slugs suggests that the tip may be a dynamic entity whose cellular composition keeps changing, not a fixed group of cells (Bonner 1998).

  22. 22.

    Curiously, the bacterium Enterobacter (Aerobacter) aerogenes, on which CSM amoebae feed, produces a substance that acts as an activator of spore germination (Hashimoto et al. 1976). Presumably the substance has been co-opted by amoebae to serve as an indicator of the availability of food. This is an interaction between a predator and its prey and so does not form part of social behaviour within one species. It is mentioned here because of the unusual outcome, namely a ‘closing of the loop’ in the asexual life cycle: there is a smooth transition from the conventional end-point of the life cycle (terminal differentiation into spore and stalk cells) to its conventional beginning (feeding of bacteria by amoebae).

  23. 23.

    See Zahavi (2006).

  24. 24.

    Note that this is not the same as conventional phenotypic variation between the members of a species, which is usually thought to be based on genetic differences, environmental differences or genotype– environment interactions. Presumably something comparable could occur in other social organisms, e.g. the social insects, in which autonomous differences can be reinforced by inter-individual interactions.

  25. 25.

    Intercellular interactions can cause phenotypic differences to arise spontaneously among two or more cells. A well-studied case involves the combination of stochastic fluctuations and negative cross-feedbacks that leads to the distinction between anchor and ventral uterine (AC/VU) cells in Caenorhabditis elegans (Wilkinson et al. 1994). Analogous negative feedbacks seem to exist in D. discoideum; see Fig. 3. A bimodal distribution of cell motility may arise in D. discoideum and other systems because mutual inhibition between two signal transduction pathways can lead to bistability (Goury-Sistla et al. 2012).

  26. 26.

    In his Ph.D. thesis (submitted to the Indian Institute of Science, 1996), Baskar reports that he was able to stain spores differentially using the dye neutral red. The spores were allowed to germinate and the resulting amoebae were compelled to aggregate (by being deprived of food). Following aggregation, highly stained and poorly stained amoebae sorted out to the slug anterior and posterior respectively; that is, they exhibited presumptive spore or stalk tendencies. The effect disappeared if feeding and cell division were allowed to intervene.

  27. 27.

    Rafols et al. (2001) state that “the pattern of cell types is qualitatively the same for slugs of all different sizes, from 100 cells to more than ~100,000 cells”. The actual proportions vary from species to species. In D. discoideum ~80 % of the amoebae form spores under standard laboratory conditions; in D. giganteum it is ~50 %; Raper (1940); Kaushik et al. (2006).

  28. 28.

    Transdifferentiation, first indicated in Raper’s observations on isolated prestalk and prespore fragments of the slug (Raper 1941), was shown explicitly later by Gregg (1965), and its kinetics was studied by Sakai (1973).

  29. 29.

    As the topic has been reviewed extensively recently (Nanjundiah and Sathe 2011), we restrict ourselves to listing the main points.

  30. 30.

    In this case, of an ‘animal’ that, as Bonner (1994) has pointed out, is without nerves or muscles.

  31. 31.

    Mesnil et al. (1996) have reported a bystander effect in cancer tissue.

  32. 32.

    In these experiments the genetically heterogeneous nature of the group, which is engineered by the experimenter, is merely a tool of convenience. Genetic heterogeneity makes it easier to distinguish between two classes of cells and compare the efficiency with which each forms spores with the corresponding efficiency when either is in a clonal group. The assumption is that the experiments are telling us something about social behaviour in a group of interacting CSM amoebae that belonged to different phenotypes originally or acquired different phenotypes following intercellular interactions. Once the group forms and is stable, whether it is clonal or polyclonal is unimportant.

  33. 33.

    A ‘kin effect’ can be present without kin selection. When an amoeba dies as a stalk cell, and no spore cell has the same genotype, it is strongly selected against—its genotype disappears. On the other hand, if genotype is also present in one or more spores, the amoeba is subject to equally strong negative selection but its genotype survives. However, by itself this is not evidence of kin selection. Kin selection requires that the death of a stalk cell be selected because—whenever different genotypes are found in the same social group—it enhances the probability that another cell of the same genotype forms a spore relative to the probability of an unrelated cell forming a spore.

  34. 34.

    Raper (1940) had shown that this was possible. Presumptive stalk and spore cells can interconvert when inhibitory influences from the complementary tissue are removed (see Fig. 3).

  35. 35.

    Cooperative communities of bacteria (Sachs and Hollowell 2012), nests founded by females of different species in social insects (Hunt 2009; especially the note there attributed to Snelling) and mixed-species foraging in bird flocks (Sridhar et al. 2009) all show that interactions between different species may be relevant for social evolution.

  36. 36.

    Because, based on their DNA sequences the last common ancestor of the two lived 400 million years ago (Sucgang et al. 2011). But D. purpureum and D. discoideum have a number of orthologous genes whose expression patterns overlap considerably (Parikh et al. 2010), i.e., in terms of gene expression patterns the species look very similar.

References

  • Anjard C, van Bemmelen M, Veron M, Reymond CD (1997) A new spore differentiation factor (SDF) secreted by Dictyostelium cells is phosphorylated by the cAMP dependent protein kinase. Differentiation 62:43–49

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anjard C, Chang WT, Gross J, Nellen W (1998a) Production and activity of spore differentiation factors (SDFs) in Dictyostelium. Development 125:4067–4075

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anjard C, Zeng C, Loomis WF, Nellen W (1998b) Signal transduction pathways leading to spore differentiation in Dictyostelium discoideum. Dev Biol 193:146–155

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Atzmony D, Zahavi A, Nanjundiah V (1997) Altruistic behaviour in Dictyostelium discoideum explained on the basis of individual selection. Curr Sci 72:142–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Azhar M, Kennady PK, Pande G, Espiritu M, Holloman W, Brazill D, Gomer RH, Nanjundiah V (2001) Cell cycle phase, cellular Ca2 + and development in Dictyostelium discoideum. Int J Dev Biol 45:405–414

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bacon CW, Sussman AS, Paul AG (1973) Identification of a self-inhibitor from spores of Dictyostelium discoideum. J Bacteriol 113:1061–1063

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blaskovics JC, Raper KB (1957) Encystment stages of Dictyostelium. Biol Bull 113:58–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1952) The pattern of differentiation in amoeboid slime molds. Am Naturalist 86:79–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1965) Size and cycle. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1967) The cellular slime molds. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1970) Induction of stalk cell differentiation by cyclic AMP in the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 65:110–113

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1982) Evolutionary strategies and developmental constraints in the cellular slime molds. Am Naturalist 119:530–552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1994) The migration stage of Dictyostelium: behaviour without muscles or nerves. FEMS Microbiol Lett 120(1–2):1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (1998) A way of following individual cells in the migrating slugs of Dictyostelium discoideum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:9355–9359

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (2003) On the origin of differentiation. J Biosci 28:523–528

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (2009) The social amoebae. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT (2013) Randomness in evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT, Dodd MR (1962) Aggregation territories in the cellular slime molds. Biol Bull Mar Biol Lab, Woods Hole 122(1):13–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT, Lamont DS (2005) Behavior of cellular slime molds in the soil. Mycologia 97(1):178–184

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bonner JT, Sieja TW, Hall EM (1971) Further evidence for the sorting out of cells in the differentiation of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. J Embryol Exp Morphol 25:457–465

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buss LW (1982) Somatic cell parasitism and the evolution of somatic tissue compatibility. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:5337–5341

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle TR, Zahavi A (1986) Helping at the nest, allofeeding and social status in immature arabian babblers. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 18:339–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavender JC (1973) Geographical distribution of Acrasiae. Mycologia 65:1044–1054

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavender JC, Raper KB (1968) The occurrence and distribution of Acrasieae in forests of subtropical and tropical America. Am J Bot 55:504–513

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen G, Zhuchenko O, Kuspa A (2007) Immune-like phagocyte activity in the social amoeba. Science 317:678–681

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke M, Gomer RH (1995) PSF and CMF, autocrine factors that regulate gene expression during growth and early development of Dictyostelium. Experientia 51:1124–1134

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen JE (1971) Casual groups of monkeys and men: stochastic models of elemental social systems. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 

    Google Scholar 

  • Crook JH (1972) Sexual selection, dimorphism, and social organization in the primates. In: Campbell B (ed) Sexual selection and the descent of man: the Darwinian pivot. Aldine-Atherton, Chicago, pp 231–281

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlberg K, Cotter D (1977) Autoactivation of spore germination among members of the Dictyosteliaceae. Abstracts of papers presented at the 2nd international mycological congress. pp. 124

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection. John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1871) The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. Appleton, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins R (1981) The extended phenotype: the long reach of the gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Dean AM (2005) Protecting haploid polymorphisms in temporally variable environments. Genetics 169:1147–1156

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellison AM, Buss LW (1983) A naturally occurring developmental synergism between the cellular slime mold, Dictyostelium mucoroides and the fungus Mucor hiemalis. Am J Bot 70:298–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erdös GW, Raper KB, Vogen LK (1975) Sexuality in the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium giganteum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 72:970–973

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Filosa MF (1962) Heterocytosis in cellular slime molds. Am Naturalist XCVI(887):79–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Forgacs G, Newman SA (2005) Biological physics of the developing embryo. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fortunato A, Strassmann JE, Santorelli L, Queller DC (2003) Co-occurrence in nature of different clones of the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. Mol Ecol 12:1031–1038

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gierer A (1977) Physical aspects of tissue evagination and biological form. Q Rev Biophys 10:529–593

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert OM, Foster KR, Mehdiabadi NJ, Strassmann JE, Queller DC (2007) High relatedness maintains multicellular cooperation in a social amoeba by controlling cheater mutants. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:8913–8917

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Goury-Sistla P, Nanjundiah V, Pande G (2012) Bimodal distribution of motility and cell fate in Dictyostelium discoideum. Int J Dev Biol 56:263–272

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gregg JH (1965) Regulation in the cellular slime molds. Dev Biol 12:377–393

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hashimoto Y, Tanaka Y, Yamada T (1976) Spore germination promoter of Dictyostelium discoideum excreted by Aerobacter aerogenes. J Cell Sci 21:261–271

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Houchmandzadeh B (2009) Theory of neutral clustering for growing populations. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys 80:051920

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt JH (2009) Interspecific adoption of orphaned nests by polistes paper wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). J Hym Res 18(2):136–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Huss MJ (1989) Dispersal of cellular slime molds by two soil invertebrates. Mycologia 81:677–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inouye K (1989) Control of cell type proportions by a secreted factor in Dictyostelium discoideum. Development 107:605–610

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jablonka E, Raz G (2009) Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms and implications for the study of heredity and evolution. Q Rev Biol 84(2):131–176

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jain R, Yuen IS, Taphouse CR, Gomer RH (1992) A density-sensing factor controls development in Dictyostelium. Genes Devel 6:390–400

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jermyn KA, Duffy KT, Williams JG (1989) A new anatomy of the prestalk zone in Dictyostelium. Nature 340:144–146

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn AJ (1964) Some aspects of cell interactions in the development of the slime mold Dictyostelium purpureum. Dev Biol 9:1–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kakebeeke PIJ, de Wit RJW, Kohtz SD, Konijn TM (1979) Negative chemotaxis in Dictyostelium and Polysphondylium. Exp Cell Res 124:429–433

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kay RR (1997) DIF signaling. In: Maeda Y, Inouye K, Takeuchi I (eds) Dictyostelium—A model system for cell and developmental biology. Universal Academy Press, Tokyo, pp 279–292

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaushik S (2002) Genetic heterogeneity and social behaviour in cellular slime molds. Ph.D. thesis, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaushik S, Katoch B, Nanjundiah V (2006) Social behaviour in genetically heterogeneous groups of Dictyostelium giganteum. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 59:521–530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaushik S, Nanjundiah V (2003) Evolutionary questions raised by cellular slime mold development. Proc Indian Natl Sci Acad B69:825–852

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawakami SI, Hagiwara H (2002) Two mating groups of Polysphondylium pallidum, a dictyostelid cellular slime mold. Mycoscience 43:453–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kawli TS, Kaushik S (2001) Cell fate choice and social evolution in Dictyostelium discoideum: interplay of morphogens and heterogeneities. J Biosci 26:130–133

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kay RR (1982) cAMP and spore differentiation in Dictyostelium discoideum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:3228–3231

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kay RR, Large S, Traynor D, Nayler O (1993) A localized differentiation-inducing-factor sink in the front of the Dictyostelium slug. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90:487–491

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kay RR, Thompson CRL (2001) Cross-induction of cell types in Dictyostelium: evidence that DIF-1 is made by prespore cells. Development 128:4959–4966

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keating MT, Bonner JT (1977) Negative chemotaxis in cellular slime molds. J Bacteriol 130:144–147

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kessin RH (2001) Dictyostelium—evolution, cell biology, and the development of multicellularity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kessin RH, Gundersen GG, Zaydfudim V, Grimson M, Blanton RL (1996) How cellular slime molds evade nematodes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:4857–4861

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khare A, Santorelli LA, Strassmann JE, Queller DC, Kuspa A, Shaulsky G (2009) Cheater-resistance is not futile. Nature 461:980–982

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kibler K, Nguyen TL, Svetz J, van Driessche N, Ibarra M, Thompson C, Shaw C, Shaulsky G (2003) A novel developmental mechanism in Dictyostelium revealed in a screen for communication mutants. Dev Biol 259:193–208

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Konijn TM, van de Meene JGC, Bonner JT, Barkley DS (1967) The acrasin activity of adenosine-3′,5′-cyclic phosphate. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 58:1152–1154

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kuzdzal-Fick JJ, Fox SA, Strassmann JE, Queller DC (2011) High relatedness is necessary and sufficient to maintain multicellularity in Dictyostelium. Science 334:1548–1551

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leach CK, Ashworth JM, Garrod DR (1973) Cell sorting out during the differentiation of mixtures of metabolically distinct populations of Dictyostelium discoideum. J Embryol Exp Morphol 29:647–661

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Loomis WF (1993) Lateral inhibition and pattern formation in Dictyostelium. Curr Top Dev Biol 28:1–46

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacWilliams HK, Bonner JT (1979) The prestalk-prespore pattern in cellular slime molds. Differentiation 14:1–22

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McDonald SA, Durston AJ (1984) The cell cycle and sorting behaviour in Dictyostelium discoideum. J Cell Sci 66:195–204

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Maeda M, Sakamoto H, Iranfar N, Fuller D, Maruo T, Ogihara S, Morio T, Urushihara H, Tanaka Y, Loomis WF (2003) Changing patterns of gene expression in Dictyostelium prestalk cell subtypes recognized by in situ hybridization with genes from microarray analyses. Euk Cell 2:627–637

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mehdiabadi NJ, Jack CN, Farnham TT, Platt TG, Kalla SE, Shaulsky G, Queller DC, Strassmann JE (2006) Kin preference in a social microbe. Nature 442:881–882

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mesnil M, Piccoli C, Tiraby G, Willecke K, Yamasaki H (1996) Bystander killing of cancer cells by herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene is mediated by connexins. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:1831–1835

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mizutani A, Hagiwara H, Yanagisawa K (1990) A killer factor produced by the cellular slime mold Polysphondylium pallidum. Arch Microbiol 153:413–416

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mizutani A, Habata Y, Yanagisawa K (1991) Induction of cell fusion by a factor released by the cellular slime mold Polysphondylium pallidum. Arch Microbiol 156:159–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore AJ, Brodie ED, Wolf JB (1997) Interacting phenotypes and the evolutionary process: I. Direct and indirect genetic effects of social interactions. Evolution 51:1352–1362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morris HR, Taylor GW, Masento MS, Jermyn KA, Kay RR (1987) Chemical structure of the morphogen differentiation inducing factor from Dictyostelium discoideum. Nature 328:811–814

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mujumdar N, Inouye K, Nanjundiah V (2009) The trishanku gene and terminal morphogenesis in Dictyostelium discoideum. Evol Dev 11:697–709

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mujumdar N, Dubey AK, Nandimath K, Nanjundiah V (2011) Autonomous and non-autonomous traits mediate social cooperation in Dictyostelium discoideum. J Biosci 36:505–516

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mutzel R (1991) Cellular slime molds: why and how to become pluricellular. Bull Inst Pasteur 89:51–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Nanjundiah V (1985) The evolution of communication and social behaviour in Dictyostelium discoideum. Proc Indian Acad Sci (Anim Sci) 94:639–653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nanjundiah V (2003) Phenotypic plasticity and evolution by genetic assimilation. In: Müller G, Newman SA (eds) Origins of organismal form. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 244–263

    Google Scholar 

  • Nanjundiah V, Bhogle AS (1995) The precision of regulation in Dictyostelium discoideum: implications for cell-type proportioning in the absence of spatial pattern. Indian J Biochem Biophys 32:404–416

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nanjundiah V, Malchow D (1976) A theoretical study of the effect of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterases during aggregation in Dictyostelium. J Cell Sci 22:49–58

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nanjundiah V, Sathe S (2011) Social selection and the evolution of cooperative groups: the example of the cellular slime moulds. Integr Biol 3:329–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman SA, Comper WD (1990) Generic physical mechanisms of morphogenesis and pattern formation. Development 110:1–18

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Newman SA, Forgacs G (2005) Complexity and self-organization in biological development and evolution. In: Bonchev D, Rouray DH (eds) Complexity in chemistry, biology and ecology. Springer, Berlin, pp. 49–95. doi: 10.1007/0-387-25871-X_2

    Google Scholar 

  • Nickerson AW, Raper KB (1973) Macrocysts in the life cycle of the Dictyosteliaceae. II. Germination of the macrocysts. Am J Bot 60:247–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nizak C, Fitzhenry RJ, Kessin RH (2007) Exploitation of other social amoebae by Dictyostelium caveatum. PLoS ONE 2(2):e212

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • O’Dell WD (2007) Isolation, enumeration and identification of amebae from a Nebraska lake. J Eukaryot Microbiol 26:265–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olive LS (1975) The Mycetozoans. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Oohata AA, Nakagawa M, Tasaka M, Fujii S (1997) A novel prespore-cell-inducing factor in Dictyostelium discoideum induces cell division of prespore cells. Development 124:2781–2787

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrowski EA, Katoh M, Shaulsky G, Queller DC, Strassmann JE (2008) Kin discrimination increases with genetic distance in a social amoeba. PLoS Biol 6:e287

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parikh A, Miranda ER, Katoh-Kurasawa M, Fuller D, Rot G, Zagar L, Curk T, Sucgang R, Chen R, Zupan B, Loomis WF, Kuspa A, Shaulsky G (2010) Conserved developmental transcriptomes in evolutionarily divergent species. Genome Biol 11:R35

    Google Scholar 

  • Rafols I, Amagai A, Maeda Y, MacWilliams HK, Sawada Y (2001) Cell type proportioning in Dictyostelium slugs: lack of regulation within a 25-fold tolerance range. Differentiation 67:107–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainey PB, Buckling A, Kassen R, Travisano M (2000) The emergence and maintenance of diversity: insights from experimental bacterial populations. Trends Ecol Evol 15:241–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raper KB (1940) Pseudoplasmodium formation and organization in Dictyostelium discoideum. J Elisha Mitchell Sci Soc 56:241–282

    Google Scholar 

  • Raper KB (1941) Developmental patterns in simple slime molds. Growth 5:41–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Raper KB (1984) The Dictyostelids. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Raper KB, Thom C (1941) Interspecific mixtures in the Dictyosteliaceae. Am J Bot 28:69–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratcliff WC, Denison RF, Borrello M, Travisano M (2012) Experimental evolution of multicellularity. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 109(5):1595–1600

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy AK, Balne PK, Garg P, Sangwan VS, Das M, Krishna PV, Bagga B, Vemuganti GK (2010). Dictyostelium polycephalum infection of human cornea. emerging infectious diseases. 16:1644–1645

    Google Scholar 

  • Riedel V, Gerisch G, Müller E, Beug H (1973) Defective cyclic adenosine-3′,5′-phosphate-phosphodiesterase regulation in morphogenetic mutants of Dictyostelium discoideum. J Mol Biol 74(4):573–585

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rubin J, Robertson A (1975) The tip of the Dictyostelium discoideum pseudoplasmodium as an organizer. J Embryol Exp Morphol 33:227–241

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sakai Y (1973) Cell type conversion in isolated prestalk and prespore fragments of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum. Devel Growth Differ 15:11–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Šášik R, Iranfar N, Hwa T, Loomis WF (2002) Extracting transcriptional events from temporal gene expression patterns during Dictyostelium development. Bioinformatics 18:61–66

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sonowal R, Nandimath K, Kulkarni SS, Koushika S, Nanjundiah V, Mahadevan S (2013) Hydrolysis of aromatic β-glucosides by non-pathogenic bacteria bacteria confers a chemical weapon against predators. Proc R Soc B 280. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0721

  • Russell GK, Bonner JT (1960) A note on spore germination in the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium mucoroides. Bull Torrey Bot Club 87:187–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs JL, Hollowell AC (2012) The origins of cooperative bacterial communities. mBio 3(3):00099–12. doi:10.1128/mBio

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saran S (1999) Calcium levels during cell cycle correlate with cell fate of Dictyostelium discoideum. Cell Biol Int 23:399–405

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sathe S, Kaushik S, Lalremruata A, Aggarwal RK, Cavender JC, Nanjundiah V (2010) Genetic heterogeneity in wild isolates of cellular slime mold social groups. Microb Ecol 60:137–148

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schaap P, Tang YH, Othmer, HG, (1996) A model for pattern formation in Dictyostelium discoideum. Differentiation. 60:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaffer BM (1975) Secretion of cyclic AMP induced by cyclic AMP in the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum. Nature 255:549–552

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shimomura O, Suthers HLB, Bonner JT (1982) Chemical identity of the acrasin of the cellular slime mold Polysphondylium violaceum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:7376–7379

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sridhar H, Beauchamp G, Shanker K (2009) Why do birds participate in mixed-species foraging flocks? A large-scale synthesis. Anim Behav 78:337–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stephenson SL, Landolt JC (1992) Vertebrates as vectors of cellular slime molds in temperate forests. Mycol Res 96:670–672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sternfeld J, David CN (1982) Fate and regulation of anterior-like cells in Dictyostelium slugs. Dev Biol 93:111–118

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sternfeld J (1998) The anterior-like cells in Dictyostelium are required for the elevation of the spores during culmination. Dev Genes Evol 208:487–494

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Strassmann JE, Zhu Y, Queller DC (2000) Altruism and social cheating in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Nature 408:965–967

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sucgang R, Kuo A, Tian X, Salerno W, Parikh A, Feasley CL, Dalin E,Tu H, Huang E, Barry K, Lindquist E, Shapiro H, Bruce D, Schmutz J, Salamov A, Fey P, Gaudet P, Anjard C, Babu MM, Basu S, Bushmanova Y, van der Wel H, Katoh-Kurasawa M, Dinh C, Coutinho PM, Saito T, Elias M, Schaap P, Kay RR, Henrissat B, Eichinger L, Rivero F, Putnam NH, West CM, Loomis WF, Chisholm RL, Shaulsky G, Strassmann JE, Queller DC, Kuspa A, Grigoriev IV (2011) Comparative genomics of the social amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum and Dictyostelium purpureum. Genome Biol 12:R20

    Google Scholar 

  • Sussman M (1952) An analysis of the aggregation stage in the development of the slime molds, Dictyosteliaceae. II. Aggregative center formation by mixtures of Dictyostelium discoideum wild type and aggregateless variants. Biol Bull 103:446–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sussman M (1954) Synergistic and antagonistic interactions between morphogenetically deficient variants of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum. J Gen Microbiol 10:110–120

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sussman M (1955) Fruity and other mutants of the cellular slime mould, Dictyostelium discoideum: a study of developmental aberrations. J Gen Microbiol 13:295–309

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sussman M, Lee F (1955) Interactions among variant and wild-type strains of cellular slime mold across thin agar membranes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 41:70–78

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Suthers HB (1985) Ground-feeding migratory songbirds as cellular slime mold distribution vectors. Oecologia 65:526–530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takeuchi I (1969) Establishment of polar organization during slime mold development. In: Cowdry EV, Seno S (eds) Nucleic acid metabolism cell differentiation and cancer growth. Pergamon Press, New York, pp 297–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Takeuchi I, Noce T, Tasaka M (1986) Prestalk and prespore differentiation during development of Dictyostelium discoideum. Curr Topics Dev Biol 20:243–256

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson CRL, Kay RR (2000a) Cell-fate choice in Dictyostelium: intrinsic biases modulate sensitivity to DIF signaling. Dev Biol 227:56–64

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson CRL, Kay RR (2000b) The role of DIF-1 signaling in Dictyostelium development. Mol Cell 6:1509–1514

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Town CD, Gross JD, Kay RR (1976) Cell differentiation without morphogenesis in Dictyostelium discoideum. Nature 262:717–719

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Urushihara H (1992) Review—sexual development of cellular slime mold. Devel Growth Differ 34:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Haastert PJM, de Wit RJW, Grijpma Y, Konijn TM (1982) Identification of a pterin as the acrasin of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium lacteum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:6270–6274

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Driessche N, Shaw C, Katoh M, Morio T, Sucgang R, Ibarra M, Kuwayama H, Saito T, Urushihara H, Maeda M, Takeuchi I, Ochiai H, Eaton W, Tollett J, Halter J, Kuspa A, Tanaka Y, Shaulsky G (2002) A transcriptional profile of multicellular development in Dictyostelium discoideum. Development 129:1543–1552

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Waddell DR (1982) A predatory slime mould. Nature 298:464–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weijer CJ, Duschl G, David CN (1984) Dependence of cell-type proportioning and sorting on cell cycle phase in Dictyostelium discoideum. J Cell Sci 70:133–145

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Werfel JK, Bar-Yam Y (2004) The evolution of reproductive restraint through social communication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:11019–11024

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard MJ (1979) Sexual selection, social competition, and evolution. Proc Am Phil Soc 123:222–223

    Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard MJ (1989) Phenotypic plasticity and the origins of diversity. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 20:249–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson HA, Fitzgerald K, Greenwald I (1994) Reciprocal changes in expression of the receptor lin-12 and its ligand lag-2 prior to commitment in a C. elegans cell fate decision. Cell 79:1187–1198

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EO (1971) The insect societies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf JB, Brodie ED, Moore AJ (1999) Interacting phenotypes and the evolutionary process. II. selection resulting from social interactions. Am Nat 153:254–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahavi A (2005) Is group selection necessary to explain social adaptations in microorganisms? Heredity 94:143–144

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zahavi A (2006) Sexual selection, signal selection and the handicap principle. In: Jamieson BGM (ed) Reproductive biology and phylogeny of birds. Science Publishers, Plymouth, pp 143–159

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank J. T. Bonner and C. Nizak for comments on an earlier draft. S.S. acknowledges the award of a Senior Research Fellowship from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. This work was supported by a UGC Special Assistance Programme.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

    Vidyanand Nanjundiah

  2. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Vidyanand Nanjundiah & Santosh Sathe

  3. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Studies Jakkur, Bangalore, 560064, India

    Vidyanand Nanjundiah & Santosh Sathe

Authors
  1. Vidyanand Nanjundiah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Santosh Sathe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vidyanand Nanjundiah .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Systematic Biology, University of Uppsala, Norbyvägen 18D, Uppsala, 75236, Sweden

    Maria Romeralo

  2. , Systematic Biology, University of Uppsala, Norbyvägen 18D, Uppsala, 75236, Sweden

    Sandra Baldauf

  3. Alberto Sols CSIC-UAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomedicas, Arturo Duperier 4, Madrd, 28029, Spain

    Ricardo Escalante

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Nanjundiah, V., Sathe, S. (2013). Social Selection in the Cellular Slime Moulds. In: Romeralo, M., Baldauf, S., Escalante, R. (eds) Dictyostelids. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38487-5_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation