Cheating by Exploitation of Developmental Prestalk Patterning in Dictyostelium discoideum
Figure 6
The chtC mutants cheat on tagB–, but not on tagA–.
The strains were grown separately and mixed in the appropriate proportions before development in chimera. (A) Spore production of the tagA– and tagB– mutants when mixed in a 1∶1 ratio with AX4-GFP cells. The data are presented as the proportion (%) of the spores produced by the strain of interest relative to the total spores produced by the chimerae. The results are the means and standard errors of at least 3 independent replications. Both the tagA– and tagB– mutants form approximately 50% of the spores, showing that they are neutral in terms of cheating behavior. (B) Spore production of AX4-GFP, tagA– and tagB– when mixed in a 1∶1 ratio with chtCins and chtCdel cells. The data are presented as the proportion (%) of the spores produced by the strain of interest relative to the total spores produced by the chimerae. The results are the means and standard errors of at least 3 independent replications. In the chimerae with either chtC mutant, the tagA– mutant forms significantly more spores and the tagB– mutant is not significantly different, compared to AX4 (Student's t-test). Individual P-values are indicated above the bars for the significantly different strains.