MOAC Doctoral Training Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2010 Feb 26;6(2):e1000686. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000686.
Many bacteria exhibit multicellular behaviour, with individuals within a colony coordinating their actions for communal benefit. One example of complex multicellular phenotypes is myxobacterial fruiting body formation, where thousands of cells aggregate into large three-dimensional structures, within which sporulation occurs. Here we describe a novel theoretical model, which uses Monte Carlo dynamics to simulate and explain multicellular development. The model captures multiple behaviours observed during fruiting, including the spontaneous formation of aggregation centres and the formation and dissolution of fruiting bodies. We show that a small number of physical properties in the model is sufficient to explain the most frequently documented population-level behaviours observed during development in Myxococcus xanthus.
许多细菌表现出多细胞行为，菌落中的个体为了共同利益协调它们的行动。复杂的多细胞表型的一个例子是粘细菌的子实体形成，其中数千个细胞聚集形成大型三维结构，在其中发生孢子形成。在这里，我们描述了一个新的理论模型，该模型使用蒙特卡罗动力学来模拟和解释多细胞发育。该模型捕获了在子实体形成过程中观察到的多种行为，包括聚集中心的自发形成以及子实体的形成和溶解。我们表明，模型中的少量物理性质足以解释在粘细菌发育过程中观察到的最常见的群体水平行为。
