NSF 今日图说 | 野外变形虫也会合作（欢迎打卡）

本文转自 https://news.science360.gov/

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社会变形虫盘基网柄菌（简称 Dicty）是数代细胞和分子生物学家努力攻克的领域，他们指出 Dicty 有着强大的社交系统，并弄清了它们社交过程中的很多机制。但还需要对自然界进行进一步的研究，才能搞懂 Dicty 之间互相合作的行为是否只是让其亲属受益，又或者这种社会活动在自然界中频繁发生。在饥饿的情况下，数万只之前保持独立的 Dicty 变形虫会聚集成一只缓慢活动的软虫，最终分化成活的孢子的子实体，其高秆由无菌茎细胞构成。大约 20% 的细胞会自我牺牲，形成提升活体孢子高度并帮助它们分散开的茎。这个行为中有利他主义者（死秆细胞）和受益者（活孢子细胞），界限明了，让人不由地想起了蚂蚁群体，不能繁殖后代的蚂蚁会协助蚁后生产。图片显示：盘基网柄菌子实体上的茎，其细胞已经死亡，这可以帮助昆虫更好地运输孢子。

Cooperation among amoebae in the wild

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, or Dicty for short, is a powerful social study system because of the hard work of generations of cell and molecular biologists who have figured out many of the mechanisms of its social process. But it takes studies in nature to understand whether Dicty's cooperative behavior benefits relatives, and even whether its social activities occur frequently in nature. Triggered by starvation, tens of thousands of formerly independent Dicty amoebae aggregate into a motile slug that ultimately differentiates into a fruiting body with living spores aloft a stalk made of sterile stalk cells. About 20 percent of the cells sacrifice themselves to form the stalk that lifts living spores aloft and helps them disperse. This clear separation into altruists (dead stalk cells) and beneficiaries (living spore cells) is reminiscent of an ant colony, where the sterile workers assist their queen in reproducing. Shown here: Dictyostelium discoideum fruiting bodies showing the stalk made up of cells that died to lift the spores to facilitate their transport by insects.

Image credit: Tyler Larsen/Washington University