A polychromatic ‘greenbeard’ locus determines patterns of cooperation in a social amoeba

Abstract

Cooperation can be stabilized against exploitation if cooperators can reliably recognize each other. Here, Gruenheit and colleagues show that different alleles of the Tgr locus of the social amoebaDictyostelium discoideumunderlie the ability of different strains to recognize and cooperate with socially compatible individuals.