An autoregulatory circuit for long-range self-organization in Dictyostelium cell populations

Satoshi Sawai (), Peter A. Thomason and Edward C. Cox ()
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Satoshi Sawai: Princeton University
Peter A. Thomason: Princeton University
Edward C. Cox: Princeton University

Nature, 2005, vol. 433, issue 7023, 323-326

Abstract: cAMP followers The slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum is popular with cell biologists as a model for a multicellular way of life. When food is short its free-living soil amoebae aggregate to form a multicellular body that differentiates and produces spores. Work by Gerisch and others in the 1970s showed that aggregation is controlled by pulses of cyclic AMP, and now experiments with mutants lacking cAMP-dependent protein kinase A show how this system works. Cells communicate via a cAMP signal relay to create outwardly propagating waves of cAMP that control inward movement of cells. Numerical models suggests that self-organization is fine-tuned by a genetic circuit acting via protein kinase A to create an overall wave pattern; in its absence a series of unconnected spiral cores develops. Other systems, such as heart muscle, may act similarly to suppress deleterious spiral waves.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03228

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