Parasexual Hybridization in Cellular Slime Molds.II. The Appearance and Characterization of Interspecific Hybrids between Dictyostelium discoideum and D. mucoroides

Abstract

Three drug resistant mutants of Dictyostelium discoideum andD. mucoroides were employed to demonstrate the occurrence of interspecifichybridization. Interspecific hybrids appeared at a frequency of 4 x 10^-5, whereas intraspecific hybrids appeared at a frequency of 1 x 10^-3. Nineteen interspecific hybrids were serially subcultured to investigate their genetic traits. The results showed that the progenies of the interspecific hybrids retained the genetic markers of both parents in a manner similar to intraspecific hybrids. The characterization of the interspecific hybrids demonstrated that parasexual hybridization occurred even between two different species. The present study showed that genetic analysis between different species of cellular slime molds could be performed by applying this interspecific parasexual system.