Submitted:
30 April 2021
Posted:
05 May 2021
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Abstract
Throughout the eukaryotic tree of life, amoeboid organisms have evolved that aggregate upon starvation and form multicellular fruiting bodies, consisting of a ball of spores atop a stalk. This chapter discusses the remarkable convergent evolution of a stalked fruiting body in these different taxa. It then discusses a well-studied group of aggregative fruiters, the cellular slime molds, in more detail. These organisms exhibit substantial variation in their stalk formation and composition, which allows a better understanding of the evolution, maintenance and possible functions of stalked fruiting bodies, but also points to potential costs and benefits of different types of stalks.
Keywords:
aggregative multicellularity
; fruiting body
; stalk formation
; social amoebae
; dictyostelium
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