Dictyostelium

Dictyostelium aggregation

Dictyostelium is a genus of cellular slime molds and lives under favorable circumstances as protozoa in soil. For lack of food is followed by the single-celled amoeba together to form a multicellular organization (social amoeba ) and to form a long stem a fruiting bodies are released from the spores.

A representative of this genus, Dictyostelium discoideum, is a preferred model organism in cell and developmental biology, its genome was decoded by an international research team in 2005.

Taxonomy and phylogenetic origin

Due to its appearance and contradictory phylogenetic relationships the evolutionary position of Dictyostelium was an issue that could not be answered satisfactorily for a long time. The chemotaxis of amoebae and the photo - and thermo- taxis of amoebae in Pseudoplasmodium ( " Slug " stage ) are in contrast to the mushroom-like appearance of the fruiting body and the cellulosic cell wall of later stages of development, which would be more typical of plants.

Types (selection)

The genus was first described in 1869 by Julius Oscar Brefeld and includes about 50 species. The most common type is the type species Dictyostelium mucoroides.

• Dictyostelium discoideum
• Dictyostelium mucoroides
• Dictyostelium polycephalum