Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, MSB 497B, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Development. 2014 Mar;141(5):988-1000. doi: 10.1242/dev.079129.
A conventional view of development is that cells cooperate to build an organism. However, based on studies of Drosophila, it has been known for years that viable cells can be eliminated by their neighbours through a process termed cell competition. New studies in mammals have revealed that this process is universal and that many factors and mechanisms are conserved. During cell competition, cells with lower translation rates or those with lower levels of proteins involved in signal transduction, polarity and cellular growth can survive in a homogenous environment but are killed when surrounded by cells of higher fitness. Here, we discuss recent advances in the field as well as the mechanistic steps involved in this phenomenon, which have shed light on how and why cell competition exists in developing and adult organisms.
传统的发育观点认为，细胞通过合作来构建生物体。然而，基于对果蝇的研究，多年来人们已经知道，活细胞可以通过一种被称为细胞竞争的过程被其相邻细胞所清除。在哺乳动物中的新研究揭示了这个过程是普遍存在的，并且许多因素和机制都是保守的。在细胞竞争中，翻译率较低或参与信号转导、极性和细胞生长的蛋白质水平较低的细胞可以在同质环境中存活，但当被具有更高适应性的细胞包围时就会被杀死。在这里，我们讨论了该领域的最新进展以及这一现象所涉及的机制步骤，这为我们了解细胞竞争在发育和成年生物体中存在的原因和方式提供了线索。
