Vocabulary for Foster et al. "The costs and benefits of being a chimera"

amoeba: This term is often applied to single cells of Dictostelium because of their shape and movement; not at all related to the better known Amoeba proteus except in appearance.

chimera: Wikipedia does a nice job on general usages and interesting background. Note that wikipedia can be a fantastic place to start and often contains great, accurate biological information, but remember it can be edited by anyone at anytime. A focused definition of chimera in terms of the paper: a Dictyostelium slug made up of cells from more than one clone

clone: A group of cells derived from a single founder cell and therefore presumed to be genetically identical to the original (and each other)

Dictyostelium discoideum: An organism that eats bacteria growing on rotting leaves. It begins life as single cells, but as these starve, they join together and form a multicellular slug that moves as a single unit to find a good spot to release spores.

fruiting body: structure formed by a Dictyostelium slug after it stops migrating. The cells in the back 80% of the slug become spores; the remainder die in creating a thin stalk that holds the spores aloft.

intrinsic: Dictionary.com is a free on-line dictionary that brings in several sources. Great place to check spelling as well (link takes you to definitions of intrinsic)

macrocyst: Result of mating of two cells of opposite sex in Dictyostelium; not a major focus of this study, but it occurs, so authors acknowledge it and tell us why they are discounting it.

microsatellite markers: Small regions of DNA that can vary between individuals of the same species. Since the variation is often in the form of the NUMBER of repeated units, these showup as readily detected size differences if the relevant region of DNA is submitted to PCR (polymerase chain reaction)

phototactic: Responding to light by movement. Dictyostelium slugs are reported in this paper to move towards light.

pseudoplasmodium: Technical term for a Dictyostelium slug; the aggregated population of cells that moves about as a multicellular organism (FYI, a plasmodium would be the same except it would refer to the case in which there are many nuclei, but only a single giant cell).

sorus (plural = sori): The spherical structure at the top of the structure that forms after the slug has finished migrating and formed a vertical structure; there is a stalk topped by the sorus, which contains the spores

spore: A 'hibernating' form of a Dictyostelium cell that is more resistant to environmental forces and is awaiting the presence of abundant water to germinate into a Dictyostelium amoeba