Data from: Phenotypic variability in unicellular organisms: from calcium signaling to social behavior

Historically, research has focused on the mean and often neglected the variance. However, variability in nature is observable at all scales: among cells within an individual, among individuals within a population, among populations within a species. A fundamental quest in biology is now to find the mechanisms that underlie variability. Here, we investigated behavioral variability in a unique unicellular organism, Physarum polycephalum. We combined experiments and models to show that variability in cell signaling contributes to major differences in behavior underpinning some aspects of social interactions. First, following thousands of cells under various contexts, we identified distinct behavioral phenotypes: “slow-regular-social”, “fast-regular-social” and “fast-irregular-asocial”. Second, coupling chemical analysis and behavioral assays we found that calcium signaling is responsible for these behavioral phenotypes. Finally, we show that differences in signaling and behavior led to alternative social strategies. Our results have considerable implications for our understanding of the emergence of variability in living organisms.