dictyNews
Electronic Edition
Volume 40, number 16
June 28, 2014

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Abstracts
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Fruiting bodies of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum increase
spore transport by Drosophila.

Jeff Smith, David C. Queller, and Joan E. Strassmann

Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, 
MO 63130, USA


BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014, 14:105

BACKGROUND: Many microbial phenotypes are the product of cooperative 
interactions among cells, but their putative fitness benefits are often 
not well understood. In the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, 
unicellular amoebae aggregate when starved and form multicellular fruiting 
bodies in which stress-resistant spores are held aloft by dead stalk cells. 
Fruiting bodies are thought to be adaptations for dispersing spores to new 
feeding sites, but this has not been directly tested. Here we experimentally
test whether fruiting bodies increase the rate at which spores are acquired 
by passing invertebrates.

RESULTS: Drosophila melanogaster accumulate spores on their surfaces more 
quickly when exposed to intact fruiting bodies than when exposed to fruiting 
bodies physically disrupted to dislodge spore masses from stalks. Flies also 
ingest and excrete spores that still express a red fluorescent protein marker.

CONCLUSIONS: Multicellular fruiting bodies created by D. discoideum increase 
the likelihood that invertebrates acquire spores that can then be transported 
to new feeding sites. These results thus support the long-hypothesized 
dispersal benefits of altruism in a model system for microbial cooperation.

Submitted by Joan Strassmann[strassmann@wustl.edu]
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[End dictyNews, volume 40, number 16]