A recent study sheds light on a remarkable and evolutionary ancient line of defense employed by a class of social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, or the slime mold. Simply put, the defense consists of casting a net formed of DNA molecules over bacteria and killing them slowly with poisons embedded in the net. This is not the first report of extracellular DNA based traps that serve an immune function. Neutrophils are specialized white blood cells that patrol our bodies and move quickly to sites of infection. There, they release antimicrobial substances, as well as swallow microorganisms whole by a process called phagocytosis. http://scientificlens.com/dictyostelium-dna-net/
