Founder Cell Differentiation and Acrasin Production in an Aggregateless Mutant of Polyspondylium violaceum: (aggregation/D factor/founder cell/glorin/Polysphondylium violaceum).

A specific class of aggregation-deficient mutants, aggA, of Polyshondylium violaceum are unable to aggregate unless supplied exogenously with a stimulating factor called D factor. The present study examines the effect of D factor on the induction of founder cells and on the production of the chemoattractant of aggregation, N-propionyl-γ-L-glutamyl-L-ornithine-δ-lactam ethyl ester (or glorin). Founder cells initiate aggregate formation and are morphologically distinct from the majority of the amoebae.