"Farming" Amoebas Discovered 49
Researchers from Rice University have found a type of amoeba that practices a sort of "primitive farming behavior." When their bacteria food become scarce, the Dictyostelium discoideum will group together and form a "fruiting body" that will disperse bacteria spores to a new area. From the article: "The behavior falls short of the kind of 'farming' that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild. But the idea that an amoeba that spends much of its life as a single-celled organism could hold short of consuming a food supply before decamping is an astonishing one. More than just a snack for the journey of dispersal, the idea is that the bacteria that travel with the spores can 'seed' a new bacterial colony, and thus a food source in case the new locale should be lacking in bacteria." It's good to know that even a single celled creature is not immune to the pull of Farmville.
Rice university (Score:2)
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I think it's weird that they used Farmvile as a reference. Single brain-celled organisms have been playing Farmvile for over a year now, with no effect on anything. Other than wasting time, and posting updates to the uninterested. Try Harvest Moon instead, and keep it to yourselves. Rice is yummy though.
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slashdot = stagnated
Posted by jKristopeitBot v1.1
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Came here just to make this very joke. Good job, great minds and all that.
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Re:Calling this "farming" is a real stretch. (Score:5, Interesting)
Farming [google.com]: "The practice of cultivating the land or raising stock".
Well, they took their stock with them, the stock was raised (i.e. multiplied) so they have a source of food. Sound like farming. Of course, it's very basic and with no intelligence behind it (just instincts), but nevertheless, it's cool. Obviously, this behavior came about due to an evolutionary advantage, but so did the ant's behavior and any other behavior you see in nature. If it wouldn't have been advantageous from an evolutionary POV, it wouldn't have been inherited to the next generations.
Let the pedantic discussion ensue!
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From the summery:
The behavior falls short of the kind of 'farming' that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild.
I agree that it is not exactly farming in the human sense of the word, but it is a behavior that promotes cultivation of an organism (the bacteria) for the benefit of another organism (the amoeba). It is definitely an instinctive behavior, but the same can be said of the ants' behavior.
I think the use of the word farming was just to illustrate the fact that it is a more sophisticated behavior than stepping on a pile of shit.
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> It is definitely an instinctive behavior, but the same can be said of the ants' behavior.
What's the "instinctive" distinction for? Who's to say that human farmers don't also do it instinctively? And how do we really know that ants (or squirrels) aren't in some way planning ahead?
When I ask such questions I get drummed for being stupid and not seeing the obvious. Maybe I am stupid, because I really don't see why we humans think we are so different from the rest of the animal kingdom. Every time some
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> 1) Most humans can't farm; they have to learn
> it after they're born.
Good argument; I'll concede the "instinct" point.
> [ants] haven't shown a lot of intelligence in
> other ways
I don't think of the ant organism as an individual bug, I think of it as a colony. An individual ant brain is tiny, but together there's potentially distributed processing in a massively parallel system.
And ants have constructed amazing structures, under the ground and above.
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They used to do that, but the pirate squirrels would steal the map and go dig up the buried treasure.
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Yes, but if you don't starve to death, there is a better chance you will be able to reproduce.
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"Evolution does not "care" if an adaptation is advantageous or not."
Of course it does care. Even to the point that "advantageous" itself is defined as "the ability to outspring the alternatives".
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Actually no, they taken "farming" and non-"farming" strains and introduced them to a sterile growth medium, then introduced their progeny to media with bacteria present. The farming strain again displays this behaviour when creating the fruiting body, and the non farming strains do not. It's a clearly heritable trait, and (at least now) there's nothing accidental about the behaviour. Of course, they don't select for particular species of bacteria, so it's pretty crude, and can lead to carying along non-food
But (Score:4, Funny)
how do they make those little tractors?
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how do they make those little tractors?
The design is in their DNA. They build them in polynomial time of course.
Re:But (Score:5, Funny)
give me 40 microns and I'll turn this rig around.
An ant joke... (Score:2)
"I used to own an ant farm but had to give it up. I couldn't find tractors small enough to fit it." --Steven Wright
one of the stupidest comments ever on slashdot (Score:1)
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Guess you haven't been attentive enough :)
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Amen to that. It actually made me feel a little sick to my stomach to read that. Slashdot shilling for Zynga == hurl
Not bacteria spores (Score:5, Informative)
The article doesn't talk about bacteria spores, but spores of the amoeba that have bacteria inside of them. Most of these bacteria are from kinds that the amoeba "likes" to eat, so when they get to a new location, they have their "favorite" food with them. The bacteria multiply, and the amoeba feasts.
Somehow, it doesn't work so well when I go abroad and try to take raw material for my favorite food (20oz T-Bone, FYI).
You can get more info here [discovermagazine.com].
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Thank you for pointing that out. Spores are most commonly a product of fungus growths. The wikipedia page on spores [wikipedia.org] begins with the statement that "Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoans" but the reference for that goes to a 404'd pollenplus.com page--pollen is not really a spore but I imagine that, for the sake of argument, some people may try to cast it as such. Reading the remainder of the wikipedia page concentrates on fungi, rusts, smuts, and a
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Actually, there are some spore-forming bacteria, most notobaly the Bacillus [wikipedia.org] and Clostridium [wikipedia.org] Genera. The references are from Wikipedia beause it's easiest to find, but I also remember it from my Med studies, so it's a confirmed fact. Clostridium's tendency to from spores is why regular alcohol cleaning of the hands isn't enough for people with Clostridium Difficile infection; you have to clean your hands with soap and water.
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This is not wrong, but it's far from precise, or comprehensive.
Hmm, can't say that I'm surprised. Doesn't sound like one of the shining lights of Wikipedia.
I'm not a biologist ; I don't claim deep knowledge in this area. But many (possibly a majority) of the dozens of phyla of "protozoa" are
One in three travel with their bacteria (Score:3, Funny)
One in three can actually farm, since they travel with their bacteria.
I guess that means that two in three are accepting agricultural subsidies instead of farming?
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If thats' what it take to keep a stable food market, then...yes.
You had to mention farmville? (Score:1)
I hopy Zynga isn't watching... (Score:3, Funny)
Not that weird a discovery... (Score:1)
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Yes, long been known that slime molds display colonial behaviour, and that that genus has a motile "slug" colony form when it has exhausting the local food supply (really creepy to see a "plant-like" thing congeal into an "animal-like" thing). The new discovery is the fact that a significant amount of dictyo colonies carry food bacteria along with their spores, to grow wherever they land. They likely haven't outcompeted the non farming strains due to the trade-off (i.e, non farming strains do better in bact
Hey! (Score:2)
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ADM = Amoebic Dysentery Market
FarMing Amoebas... (Score:1)
DISCOVERED? (Score:2)
Discovered? This behavior was discussed in great depth in my sophomore cell bio text 30 years ago.
That course inspired me to get a degree in molecular bio, and I've posted about this behavior often, here and elsewhere. It's remarkable and inspiring in many ways, but any reference to farming -- or sudden surprise that a microbial organism is capable of doing anything but grazing to death is ... sad and ill-informed