Complexities of Inferring Symbiont Function: Symbiont Dynamics in Social Amoeba Populations and Their Impacts on the Amoeba Microbiota.

The relationship between the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and its endosymbiotic bacteria provides a model system for studying the development of symbiotic relationships. Laboratory experiments have shown that any of three species of the symbiont allow D. discoideum food bacteria to persist through the amoeba life cycle and survive in amoeba spores rather than being fully digested.