Evolution and Diversity of Dictyostelid Social Amoebae

Multicellularity arose several times in the evolution of eukaryotes (Response to DOI 10.1002/bies.201100187)

“…Understanding the duplication events and co-option of the same molecular machinery to perform similar functions will illuminate the requirements for, and evolution of, animal multicellularity. Moving forward, it will be crucial to incorporate an array of dictyostelids that encompass the breadth of morphological forms found in the clade [3,4], as well as other amoebozoans, in analyses aimed at elucidating the origin and evolution of dictyostelid multicellularity. These studies will in turn provide a deeper understanding of our own multicellularity.…”

“…Multicellularity is accomplished by two major strategies: aggregation of individual cells as in Dictyostelium and division of a single cell (zygote or spore) as in animals, plants and fungi [43]. Aggregative multicellularity (AM) occurs as part of the life cycle when single-celled organisms come together to produce a fruiting body [4,44]. AM arose in all of the major eukaryotic clades with the exception of the Archaeplastida (A, Fig.…”

“…Introduction: Dictyostelium multicellularity has structural and molecular similarities to animal multicellularity Dictyostelium discoideum is a model organism that has provided insight into the origins of multicellularity, sociality, development, and cell biology [1][2][3][4]. Dictyostelium is a member of the dictyostelid family of amoebae, which fall within the major eukaryotic clade Amoebozoa [5].…”

“…The dictyostelids are alternatively referred to as cellular slime molds or social amoebae. There are three described genera of dictyostelids, however molecular analyses demonstrate that these intermingle, and the actual diversity within this ancient clade is much greater [4,6]. Dictyostelid amoebae spend much of their life cycle foraging in soils and leaf litter for bacteria as single celled amoebae.…”

“…Despite deep evolutionary divergence [8], many genes crucial to these processes in animals are found in Dictyostelium [9]. The shared processes related to multicellularity have been shown to be similar in structure, function, and underlying molecular machinery [3,4,10,11]. These parallels are surprising because Dictyostelium multicellularity occurs by aggregation of solitary amoebae during one stage of the life cycle, which is fundamentally different from repeated division of a zygote that leads to multicellularity in animals.…”