Ref ID : 4286
A.G. Leith; The Death of an Amoeba. J.Protozool. 31(1):177-180, 1984
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A geneological study shows that about 4% of the cells in healthy, adequately fed Amoeba proteus cultures are inviable. Two different categories of inviability are distinguished. About 44% of all inviability involves twin sisters formed at a division. Another 39% involves single cells with viable sisters and nieces. The inviable singles usually die more rapidly and show fewer visible abnormalities than the twins. The mothers of inviable twins show an increased interdivision time compared to mothers of inviable singles. Both categories of death are more rapid than starvation. The 17% of the deaths which involves aunt-niece pairs appear to be special cases of twin sister of single cell deaths. There is no evidence for stem line division where a cell forms only one viable daughter of several generations. It is proposed that death is a normal occurrence in amoeba populations. It occurs regardless of culture conditions and may be a measure of accumulated lethal mutations in an asexual polyploid organism.