D. discoideum relatedness in nature

Description:

Summary[edit] Description: English: D. discoideum fruiting bodies collected from nature are usually clonal or near clonal. Clonal fruiting bodies likely result from limited dispersal leading to a patchy distribution of D. discoideum genotypes, such that cells are likely only to interact with clonemates. Owing to D. discoideum’s small size, millimeter-scale distances between genotypes are likely sufficient to promote high relatedness. Nonetheless, a minority of wild fruiting bodies are chimeric – comprising cells derived from multiple genotypes – and presumably occur where clonal patches of different genotypes intersect. Date: 31 May 2019. Source: Own work. Author: Tyler Larsen.