scholarly journals Reactive/Non-cooperative individuals advance Population's Synchronization: Modeling of Dictyostelium discoideum Concerted Signaling during Aggregation Phase

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Eidi ◽  
Najme Khorasani ◽  
Mehdi Sadeghi

Orchestrated chemical signaling of single cells sounds to be a linchpin of emerging organization and multicellular life form. The social amoeba Dictiostelium discoiudium is a well-studied model organism to explore overall pictures of grouped behavior in developmental biology. The chemical waves secreted by aggregating Dictiostelium is a superb example of pattern formation. The waves are either circular or spiral in shape, according to the incremental population density of a self-aggregating community of individuals. Here, we revisit the spatiotemporal patterns that appear in an excitable medium due to synchronization of randomly firing individuals, but with a more parsimonies attitude. According to our model, a fraction of these individuals is refusal to amplify external stimulants. Our simulations indicate that the cells enhance the system's asymmetry and as a result, nucleate early sustainable spiral territory zones, provided that their relative population does not exceed a tolerable threshold.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259742
Author(s):  
Zahra Eidi ◽  
Najme Khorasani ◽  
Mehdi Sadeghi

Orchestrated chemical signaling of single cells sounds to be a linchpin of emerging organization and multicellular life form. The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a well-studied model organism to explore overall pictures of grouped behavior in developmental biology. The chemical waves secreted by aggregating Dictyostelium is a superb example of pattern formation. The waves are either circular or spiral in shape, according to the incremental population density of a self-aggregating community of individuals. Here, we revisit the spatiotemporal patterns that appear in an excitable medium due to synchronization of randomly firing individuals, but with a more parsimonious attitude. According to our model, a fraction of these individuals are less involved in amplifying external stimulants. Our simulations indicate that the cells enhance the system’s asymmetry and as a result, nucleate early sustainable spiral territory zones, provided that their relative population does not exceed a tolerable threshold.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 794-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil J. Buttery ◽  
Chandra N. Jack ◽  
Boahemaa Adu-Oppong ◽  
Kate T. Snyder ◽  
Christopher R. L. Thompson ◽  
...  

One condition for the evolution of altruism is genetic relatedness between altruist and beneficiary, often achieved through active kin recognition. Here, we investigate the power of a passive process resulting from genetic drift during population growth in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum . We put labelled and unlabelled cells of the same clone in the centre of a plate, and allowed them to proliferate outward. Zones formed by genetic drift owing to the small population of actively growing cells at the colony edge. We also found that single cells could form zones of high relatedness. Relatedness increased at a significantly higher rate when food was in short supply. This study shows that relatedness can be significantly elevated before the social stage without a small founding population size or recognition mechanism.


Science ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 330 (6010) ◽  
pp. 1533-1536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Bloomfield ◽  
Jason Skelton ◽  
Alasdair Ivens ◽  
Yoshimasa Tanaka ◽  
Robert R. Kay

The genetics of sex determination remain mysterious in many organisms, including some that are otherwise well studied. Here we report the discovery and analysis of the mating-type locus of the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum. Three forms of a single genetic locus specify this species' three mating types: two versions of the locus are entirely different in sequence, and the third resembles a composite of the other two. Single, unrelated genes are sufficient to determine two of the mating types, whereas homologs of both these genes are required in the composite type. The key genes encode polypeptides that possess no recognizable similarity to established protein families. Sex determination in the social amoebae thus appears to use regulators that are unrelated to any others currently known.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (8-9-10) ◽  
pp. 383-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kundert ◽  
Gad Shaulsky

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a tractable model organism to study cellular allorecognition, which is the ability of a cell to distinguish itself and its genetically similar relatives from more distantly related organisms. Cellular allorecognition is ubiquitous across the tree of life and affects many biological processes. Depending on the biological context, these versatile systems operate both within and between individual organisms, and both promote and constrain functional heterogeneity. Some of the most notable allorecognition systems mediate neural self-avoidance in flies and adaptive immunity in vertebrates. D. discoideum’s allorecognition system shares several structures and functions with other allorecognition systems. Structurally, its key regulators reside at a single genomic locus that encodes two highly polymorphic proteins, a transmembrane ligand called TgrC1 and its receptor TgrB1. These proteins exhibit isoform-specific, heterophilic binding across cells. Functionally, this interaction determines the extent to which co-developing D. discoideum strains co-aggregate or segregate during the aggregation phase of multicellular development. The allorecognition system thus affects both development and social evolution, as available evidence suggests that the threat of developmental cheating represents a primary selective force acting on it. Other significant characteristics that may inform the study of allorecognition in general include that D. discoideum’s allorecognition system is a continuous and inclusive trait, it is pleiotropic, and it is temporally regulated.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. e46150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clea Scala ◽  
Xiangjun Tian ◽  
Natasha J. Mehdiabadi ◽  
Margaret H. Smith ◽  
Gerda Saxer ◽  
...  

Microbiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Pears ◽  
Julian D. Gross

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a versatile organism that is unusual in alternating between single-celled and multi-celled forms. It possesses highly-developed systems for cell motility and chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and developmental pattern formation. As a soil amoeba growing on microorganisms, it is exposed to many potential pathogens; it thus provides fruitful ways of investigating host-pathogen interactions and is emerging as an influential model for biomedical research.


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