Successive asexual life cycles of starved amoebae in the cellular slime mould, Dictyostelium mucoroides var. stoloniferum.
Dense masses of spores of Dictyostelium mucoroides var. stoloniferum have the ability to germinate and aggregate rapidly in the absence of food. This is made possible by the presence of a dominant, self-produced spore germination activator. The germination-aggregation cycle can be repeated in as many as six successive generations. In each generation the spore size is reduced so that ultimately they are only a fraction of the size of those produced by the parental, bacteria-fed amoebae.
D002452:Cell Count; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013170:Spores; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000648:ultrastructure