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Studies on Soil Acrasieae
2. The Active Life of Species of Dictyostelium in Soil and the Influence thereon of Soil Moisture and Bacterial Food
Abstract
SUMMARY: When spores of Dictyostelium mucoroides or D. giganteum were added to sterilized soil containing a pure culture of an edible bacterium, the resulting myx-amoebae actively destroyed the bacteria in the soil. When spores of D. mucoroides were added to the centre of a Petri dish of sterilized soil containing bacterial food no fruiting bodies were formed at a moisture content of 15% or less. At 19% moisture fruiting bodies were formed at the centre only. At 33% moisture the central area over which fruiting bodies appeared steadily increased in size until it covered the whole soil surface. Species of Dictyostelium can also pass through the life cycle in fresh unsterilized soil.
The nature of the bacterial food supply affects the growth of species of Dictyostelium in soil as measured by fruiting body formation. Normal fructification occurs on soil containing certain bacterial strains which induce abnormal fructification on agar.
- Received:
- Published Online:
© Society for General Microbiology, 1947