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 pij 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