ArticleF1000Research2014
An evolutionarily significant unicellular strategy in response to starvation in Dictyostelium social amoebae.
Article in F1000Research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adaptive evolutionary trajectories in complexity: Transitions between unicellularity and facultative differentiated multicellularity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Ecological histories govern social exploitation by microorganisms.The ISME journal · 2025Article
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- Group-selection via aggregative propagule-formation enables cooperative multicellularity in an individual based, spatial model.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
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- Developmental constraints enforce altruism and avert the tragedy of the commons in a social microbe.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Calpain-2 regulates hypoxia/HIF-induced plasticity toward amoeboid cancer cell migration and metastasis.Current biology : CB · 2022Article
- Aggregative cycles evolve as a solution to conflicts in social investment.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- The Multiple Roles of Trogocytosis in Immunity, the Nervous System, and Development.BioMed research international · 2021Review
- Quiescence Through the Prism of Evolution.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- Eco-evolutionary significance of "loners".PLoS biology · 2020Article
- Disentangling strictly self-serving mutations from win-win mutations in a mutualistic microbial community.eLife · 2019Article
- Does resource availability help determine the evolutionary route to multicellularity?Evolution & development · 2019Article
- Cellular allorecognition and its roles in Dictyostelium development and social evolution.The International journal of developmental biology · 2019Review
- Cyclic dominance emerges from the evolution of two inter-linked cooperative behaviours in the social amoeba.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Genetic signatures of microbial altruism and cheating in social amoebas in the wild.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- An individual-level selection model for the apparent altruism exhibited by cellular slime moulds.Journal of biosciences · 2018Article
- Fat-containing cells are eliminated duringBiology open · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is widely studied for its multicellular development program as a response to starvation. Aggregates of up to 10 (6) cells form fruiting bodies containing (i) dormant spores (~80%) that can persist for months in the absence of nutrients, and (ii) dead stalk cells (~20%) that promote the dispersion of the spores towards nutrient-rich areas. It is often overlooked that not all cells aggregate upon starvation. Using a new quantitative approach based on time-lapse fluorescence microscopy and a low ratio of reporting cells, we have quantified this fraction of non-aggregating cells. In realistic starvation conditions, up to 15% of cells do not aggregate, which makes this third cell fate a significant component of the population-level response of social amoebae to starvation. Non-aggregating cells have an advantage over cells in aggregates since they resume growth earlier upon arrival of new nutrients, but have a shorter lifespan under prolonged starvation. We find that phenotypic heterogeneities linked to cell nutritional state bias the representation of cells in the aggregating vs. non-aggregating fractions, and thus affect population partitioning. Next, we report that the fraction of non-aggregating cells depends on genetic factors that regulate the timing of starvation, signal sensing efficiency and aggregation efficiency. In addition, interactions between clones in mixtures of non-isogenic cells affect the partitioning of each clone into both fractions. We further build a numerical model to test the evolutionary significance of the non-aggregating cell fraction. The partitioning of cells into aggregating and non-aggregating fractions is optimal in fluctuating environments with an unpredictable duration of starvation periods. Our study highlights the unicellular component of the response of social amoebae to starvation, and thus extends its evolutionary and ecological framework.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.