Developmental morphologies in different phenotype groups. Cells were starved and developed on black nitrocellulose filters. The phenotype groups and strain names are indicated on the left: wild type (WT, light blue), culmination defective (cul def, dark green), tight-aggregate arrest (tag arrest, dark yellow), aggregationless (agg-, red), precocious development (precocious, violet), small fruiting body (sFB,dark blue), and tight-aggregate/loose-aggregate disaggregation (disagg, orange). Developmental structures were photographed at the times (hours) indicated above the panels except for the disaggregation group in which times are indicated below. The frame colors indicate the most representative morphological stage: no aggregation (red), rippling/streams (brown), loose aggregate (orange), tight aggregate (dark yellow), tipped aggregate (light green), slug/first finger (dark green), culminant (cyan), and fruiting body (light blue). Bars = 0.5 mm. The most advanced developmental structures are shown in the twofold magnified images. Image brightness was adjusted according to the variable color of the nitrocellulose filters.
