Altruistic behaviour in Dictyostelium discoideum explained on the basis of individual selection

Atzmony, D. ; Zahavi, A. ; Nanjundiah, V. (1997) Altruistic behaviour in Dictyostelium discoideum explained on the basis of individual selection Current Science, 72 (2). pp. 142-145. ISSN 0011-3891

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Abstract

It is often argued that natural selection acting at the level of the individual may not be sufficient to explain the evolution of altruism. We suggest that before accepting such a point of view in any specific instance, the parsimonious course would be to examine all possible ways in which individual-level selection might act and rule out its sufficiency only when the postulated means for its action are either inherently improbable or experimentally disproven. As an illustration we propose an evolutionary model, based on the individual cell as the unit of selection, for the maintenance of 'altruistic' behaviour by pre-stalk cells in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum.

Item Type:Article
Source:Copyright of this article belongs to Current Science Association.
ID Code:83181
Deposited On:16 Feb 2012 12:18
Last Modified:19 May 2016 00:07

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