Plastic transcriptomic responses to nonrelatives in Dictyostelium discoideum

When multiple strains of unicellular organisms fuse in a facultative multicellular stage as in Dictyostelium discoideum, conflict can arise regarding which cells remain fertile (spore) and which contribute only to soma (stalk). We used RNA-sequencing to detect possible conflict-generated transcriptomic responses between D. discoideum multicellular aggregates formed by single clonal strains compared to mixed pairs of strains (chimeras).