Flattened snowflake (w/ stain for apoptotic cells)

flattened cluster dark background apoptotic cells

The multicellular yeast display primitive division of labor, one of the requirements of multicellularity. To reproduce itself, a small portion of the snowflake breaks off at "breakpoints" created by apoptotic cells and then grows. In this regard, there is a division of labor - some cells serve as the progenitors of another cluster and some cells die to allow other cells to separate. 

© micropop 2012