Tyler Larsen

Sep 6, 2023 | biorxiv.org | Tyler Larsen |Israt Jahan |Debra Brock |Joan Strassmann

AbstractMany microbes interact with one another, but the difficulty of directly observing these interactions in nature makes interpreting their adaptive value complicated. The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum forms aggregates wherein some cells are sacrificed for the benefit of others. Within chimeric aggregates containing multiple unrelated lineages, cheaters can gain an advantage by undercontributing, but the extent to which wild D. discoideum has adapted to cheat is not fully clear.