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"Farming" Amoebas Discovered
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.
Anyone think it is weird that this was found out at Rice University?
how do they make those little tractors?
rewriting history since 2109
"It's good to know that even a single celled [sic] creature is not immune to the pull of Farmville" I've been reading this site for years - never expected to see something that lame.
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.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
Farming: "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!
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
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?
Farmville has nothing to do with this story. Why include that line?
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It's random, but my posting it here is probably considered illegal to someone.
If my mom and aunt send me requests from AmoebaVille I will throw a fit.
If you look at it, it doesn't seem that weird to me. I mean, this is probably how the first multiple cell creatures came into existence, simply by working together!
"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
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
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 bacteria.
Yes, but if you don't starve to death, there is a better chance you will be able to reproduce.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
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.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
My amoebas just applied for farm subsidies.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
"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".
> 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 somebody comes along with some human trait that separates us from other animals, an example of other animals doing that behavior turns up. And we just keep on moving the goalpost.
I misread it as "Farting" Amoebas :)
> 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.
They used to do that, but the pirate squirrels would steal the map and go dig up the buried treasure.
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