Evolution of dictyostelid social amoebas inferred from the use of molecular tools

Abstract

Dictyostelid social amoebas are eukaryotic microbes distributed all around the globe. As with many other protist groups, one fundamental and revolutionary event in the study of dictyostelid (Amoebozoa) systematics has been the use of molecular tools. This has radically changed our understanding of evolution across the group and has greatly expanded the potential use of dictyostelids as model organisms for a wide range of areas including biomedicine, development, evolutionary biology, and molecular ecology. This is further supported by genome sequencing that has been carried out for at least one species in each of the major groups. Phylogenomic data are also essential to pinpointing the origin of diversification of dictyostelids in terrestrial ecosystems, which is basic for understanding the evolutionary history across eukaryotic amoeboid lineages.