Ameobas: Keeping It In The Family

Starving “social amoebas” seek the support of genetically similar “kin” when they form multi-cellular organisms to ensure survival, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University in Houston report in a paper published today in the open-access journal PLoS Biology. The amoeba, called Dictyostelium discoideum, usually lives as a single celled organism, and as long as it has sufficient food and a pleasant environment, it is happy to remain that way.

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Filed under: Biology on November 25th, 2008