Abstract
Multicellular organisms have evolved several times from unicellular protists giving rise to the familiar forms of animals, plants and fungi. An important question in biology is how such transitions occurred. Multicellular life is typically dependent on complex communication between cells, whereas unicellular organisms respond mainly to environmental signals. Social amoebae are eminently suited to study the evolution of multicellularity, since they still combine a unicellular feeding stage with a stage where thousands of cells aggregate to form motile slugs and fruiting structures. In this chapter we summarize the signalling mechanisms that coordinate multicellular development in social amoebae and we discuss how these signalling mechanisms evolved from a response to environmental stress in solitary amoebae.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Evolutionary biology |
| Subtitle of host publication | concept, modeling and application |
| Editors | Pierre Pontarotti |
| Place of Publication | Heidelberg |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Pages | 91-107 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9783642009518 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
| Event | 12th Evolutionary Biology Meeting 2008 - Marseilles, France Duration: 24 Sept 2008 → 26 Sept 2008 http://sites.univ-provence.fr/evol-cgr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=19 |
Conference
| Conference | 12th Evolutionary Biology Meeting 2008 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | 12th EBM 2008 |
| Country/Territory | France |
| City | Marseilles |
| Period | 24/09/08 → 26/09/08 |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- Dependent protein kinase
- Adenylyl-cyclase-G
- Dictostelium discoideum slugs
- Cyclic AMP
- Terminal differentiation
- Gene expression
- Prespore differentiation
- Spore differentiation
- Transduction
- Cells