Amoeba betrayed by anticannibal defense
The single-celled predator Amoeba proteus releases a chemical that scares away some of its prey, but that substance may also protect the amoeba from cannibals.
References:
1999. The Ecology and Evolution of Inducible Defenses, R. Tollrian, and C.D. Harvell, eds. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Kusch, J. 1999. Self-recognition as the original function of an amoeban defense-inducting kairomone. Ecology 80(March):715.
Further Readings:
A collection of protist images including an amoeba eating can be found at http://ant.dna.affrc.go.jp/WWW/PDB/Images/menu2E.html.
Sources:
Stanley Dodson
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Department of Zoology
Birge Hall
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Drew Harvell
Cornell University
Section of Ecology and Systematics
Ithaca, NY 14853
Jürgen Kusch
University of Kaiserslautern
Department of Ecology
Faculty of Biology
Erwin-Schroedinger-Str. 14
D-67663 Kaiserslautern
Germany
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 12, March 20, 1999, p. 182. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.
