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The nutritional status of Dictyostelium cells has no impact on whether they would prefer folic acid or cAMP as a chemoattractant.

a) True
b) False

1 Answer

3 votes

Final answer:

The statement is false because the nutritional status of Dictyostelium cells does affect their preference for chemoattractants; they prefer folic acid when fed with bacteria and cAMP when starved.

Step-by-step explanation:

The nutritional status of Dictyostelium cells does have an impact on whether they would prefer folic acid or cAMP as a chemoattractant, making the statement false. Dictyostelium discoideum, commonly referred to as slime mold, utilizes different chemoattractants depending on its nutritional state. When Dictyostelium cells are bacteria-fed, they prefer folic acid, produced by their bacterial prey, as a chemoattractant.

However, during the aggregation phase, which is triggered by starvation, these cells switch to using cAMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) as a signaling molecule to indicate the initiation of the developmental cycle in Dictyostelium. This switch from folic acid to cAMP illustrates the importance of nutritional cues in chemoattractant preference and is a fundamental aspect of the organism's biology which is a crucial component of their complex life cycle involving both unicellular and multicellular stages.

User Marcel Jaeschke
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