Synergistic Morphogenesis by Mixtures of Dictyostelium discoideum Wild-type and Aggregateless Mutants

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Abstract
Aggregations involving mixtures of wild-type and "aggregateless" mutant organisms of Dictyostelium discoideum were examined. The proportions of wild-type individuals which could initiate the formation of aggregative centres by their neighbors was found to depend markedly upon the particular mutant in the mixture. The mutants appear to have supplied some of the cells responding to the initiative stimulus where these were needed and also to have produced diffusible material enabling many more wild-type organisms to act as initiators than would ordinarily do so. The results also indicate the existence of a variety of cellular interactions which may underlie the normal morphogenetic sequence.
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