Characterization of a timing mutant of Dictyostelium discoideum which exhibits "high frequency switching".

The preaggregative period of Dictyostelium discoideum is composed of two sequential rate-limiting components. The timing mutant FM-1 exhibits a decrease in the length of the preaggregative period and the interval between the maxifinger and early culminate II stage. In contrast, it is normal in all aspects of growth, in the sequence of morphogenetic stages, in spore formation, in the capacity to rapidly recapitulate morphogenesis, and in the erasure event and subsequent program of dedifferentiation. By the reciprocal shift experiment, it is demonstrated that FM-1 is completely missing the first of the two rate-limiting components comprising the preaggregative period. The FM-1 mutation is heritable and behaves as a single mutation mapping to linkage group II. However, the FM-1 variant switches at relatively high frequency to several other timing phenotypes with longer preaggregative periods which in turn switch at high frequency. The FM-1 phenotype is considered in terms of timing regulation, and the process of high frequency switching between timing phenotypes is compared to other newly discovered switching systems.