School of Biology and Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Jena, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Protist. 2012 Jan;163(1):25-37. doi: 10.1016/j.protis.2010.12.002. Epub 2011 Mar 2.
The social amoebae (Dictyostelia) use quorum sensing-like communication systems to coordinate the periodic transition from uni- to multicellularity. The monophyletic descent of the Dictyostelia provides a unique opportunity to study the origin and adaptive evolution of such intercellular communication systems. We determined that the ability of aggregation-competent cells to respond to the intercellular messenger glorin occurred in the most ancient taxa of the Dictyostelia. We show using Illumina sequencing technology that glorin mediates rapid changes in gene expression at the transition from vegetative growth to aggregation. We conclude that peptide-based communication is the most ancient form of intercellular signaling in the evolution of multicellularity in the social amoebae, but has been repeatedly replaced by other communication systems during the monophyletic evolution of the social amoebae. Glorin communication has parallels with quorum sensing in that the molecule diffuses into the field, stimulates gene expression in receptive cells and coordinates a population-wide response.
社会变形虫（Dictyostelia）使用群体感应样通讯系统来协调从单细胞到多细胞的周期性转变。Dictyostelia 的单系下降为研究这种细胞间通讯系统的起源和适应性进化提供了独特的机会。我们确定，能够响应细胞间信使 glorin 的聚集能力出现在 Dictyostelia 最古老的分类群中。我们使用 Illumina 测序技术表明，glorin 介导了从营养生长到聚集的过渡过程中基因表达的快速变化。我们的结论是，肽基通讯是多细胞生物进化过程中细胞间信号传递的最古老形式，但在社会变形虫的单系进化过程中，它已被其他通讯系统多次取代。Glorin 通讯与群体感应有相似之处，即分子扩散到现场，刺激接受细胞中的基因表达，并协调全种群的反应。
