| Abstract:As one of the co-discovers of the sexual pheromones of Dictyostelium discoideum and other heterothallic Dictyostelium species, I question the results of Douglas et al (Social amoebae mating types do not invest unequally in sexual offspring. J. Evol. Biol. 30 (2017) 926-937) who argue that physical contact between mating types is essential for macrocyst formation. Our lab is one of the few labs internationally that has been studying all aspects of sexual development in the social amoebozoans for several decades and we reached our conclusions regarding the importance of pheromones as initiating agents through a diversity of techniques carried out by several different researchers (1-6). Cell contact between mating types is not essential for sexual development (i.e., macrocyst formation). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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