Dictyostelium is a 'cellular slime mold', a very unfamiliar (to most) organism that has proved to be useful as a 'model organism' to study significant biological processes, in particular, development....Dictyostelium is a 'cellular slime mold', a very unfamiliar (to most) organism that has proved to be useful as a 'model organism' to study significant biological processes, in particular, development. It has a multicellular stage that develops not as a result of a cell dividing repeatedly producing daughter cells all stuck together. Instead multicellularity is the result of the aggregation of many individual cells.
As we move from quorum sensing between organisms of the same type, we come to what are known as biofilms. These are microbial communities, such as the plaque that forms on your teeth, and consist of a...As we move from quorum sensing between organisms of the same type, we come to what are known as biofilms. These are microbial communities, such as the plaque that forms on your teeth, and consist of a number of different types of often co-dependent organisms. While horizontal gene transfer may occur between these different organisms, they remain distinct and give rise to organisms genetically related to their parent(s).
