Dictyostelium

Want to see  multicellular life emerge from unicellular life before your eyes?

First, let’s begin with some background information that will help you understand what you are about to see:

The dictyostelids are a group of cellular slime molds, or social amoebae. When food, normally bacteria, is readily available they are individual amoebae, which feed and divide normally. However when the food supply is exhausted, they aggregate to form a multicellular assembly, called a pseudoplasmodium or slug (not to be confused with the gastropod mollusc called a slug). The slug has a definite anterior and posterior, responds to light and temperature gradients, and has the ability to migrate. Under the correct circumstances the slug matures forming a fruiting body with a stalk supporting one or more balls of spores. These spores are inactive cells protected by resistant cell walls, and become new amoebae once food is available.

Okay, so let’s look at some videos of this.