Description of Dictyosteliidae

After amoebal aggregation, the pseudoplasmodium may or may not migrate extensively during differentiation into pretalk and pre-spore cells. During sorogenesis, the stalk cells secrete a cellulosic stalk tube, crawl into the tube and synthesize a wall around themselves before dying. The remaining amoebae crawl up the outside of the cellular stalk tube and, upon reaching the apex, become spores following wall synthesis. The spores are presumed to be distributed by small organisms passing by as well as water and air currents. Certain species (e.g., Dictyostelium discoideum and Polysphondylium pallidum E.W. Olive have been grown in axenic culture.