Amoeba ‘Midwives’ Found to Assist in Reproduction Process

Giving birth is never easy, and potential mothers often need help from a midwife. New research suggests that rule extends even to amoebas, single-celled creatures that reproduce by splitting apart into mother and daughter cells. Researchers have previously noted that, in at least one species, this process often stalls while the two cells are still connected by a slender thread--and they were unsure how the cells completed the process. Biophysicist Elisha Moses and his colleagues at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, report in today’s Nature that they are assisted by a “midwife” amoeba that gets between the separating cells and pushes them apart until the thread breaks. The stalled amoebae emit a chemical cry for help that attracts the midwife, the team said.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II