title: Successive asexual life cycles of starved amoebae in the cellular slime mould, Dictyostelium mucoroides var. stoloniferum.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: D002452:Cell Count; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013170:Spores; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000648:ultrastructure