[1][2] The genus Dictyostelium is in the order Dictyosteliida, the so-called cellular slime molds or social amoebae.

Basic processes of development such as differential cell sorting, pattern formation, stimulus-induced gene expression, and cell-type regulation are common to Dictyostelium and metazoans.

Most of its life, this haploid social amoeba undergoes a vegetative cycle, preying upon bacteria in the soil, and periodically dividing mitotically.

Under the social cycle, amoebae aggregate in response to cAMP by the thousands, and form a motile slug, which moves towards light.

When starved for their bacterial food supply and exposed to dark, moist conditions, heterothallic or homothallic strains can undergo sexual development that results in the formation of a diploid zygote.

[5] Scientists also found the collective cell migration could occur without the presence of cAMP oscillations at multicellular stages, and novel models have been proposed to interpret this interesting phenomenon.

[9] Professor John Tyler Bonner (1920–2019) spent a lifetime researching the slime molds and created a number of fascinating films in the 1940s to show the life cycle; he mostly studied D. discoideum.

The conflict is evidenced by unequal representations of two genetically different clones in spores of a chimera, the reduction of functionality seen in migrating chimeras, and a differentiation inducing factor (DIF) system, akin to poison, that appears to be made of cells forcing others to cease output of genetic information.