The social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum , produces a multicellular fruiting body and has become a model system for cell–cell interactions such as signalling, adhesion and development. However, unlike most multicellular organisms, it forms by aggregation of cells and, in the laboratory, forms genetic chimeras where there may be competition among clones. Here we show that chimera formation is also likely in nature, because d...

We developed 52 microsatellite loci for the wasp, Polybioides tabidus , for the purpose of studying the evolution and inclusive fitness consequences of swarm‐founding. The large number of loci is important for three reasons that may apply to many other systems. Heterozygosity was low in our target species, yet we found enough polymorphic loci for accurate kinship studies in this species. Many monomorphic loci were polymorphic...

Molecular techniques are making ever more genetic markers available for use in parentage assignment, and measures of relatedness. We present a program, Kinship , designed to use likelihood techniques to test for any non‐inbred pedigree relationship between pairs of individuals, using single‐locus codominant genetic markers. Kinship calculates the likelihood that each pair of individuals in a data set are related by a given ped...