Table 1

Phenotypic characters used in the analysis

Annotated stage

Wild-type features

Examples of mutant features

Growth

Growth, attachment, cell size

Slow growth, no attachment, large cells

Wave

5 min periodicity terminates at 6-7 h after starvation

Slow oscillations, rapid onset, early termination,

Aggregation

Cell streaming with or without late break up

Cell clumping, partial developmental arrest, early break up

Mound

Round mounds giving rise to slugs

Arrest, multiple tips, disintegrating mound

Slug

Migration with a smooth persistent trajectory

Slow migration, arrested migration

Fruiting body

Wild-type culminant structure

Short stalk, long stalk, other aberrant morphology

Phenotype was scored subjectively by comparison of qualitative features of the strain for each stage of development shown above against those of the parental wild-type AX4 strain. For each sample run, these characters were checked by eye from the movies and observation of the samples by microscopy. On the basis of these features, the phenotype matrix p_ij was obtained for further analyses (see Materials and methods).

Sawai et al. Genome Biology 2007 8:R144   doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-7-r144