Chisholm R L, Barklis E, Lodish H F
Nature. 1984;310(5972):67-9. doi: 10.1038/310067a0.
Upon starvation, the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum initiates a 24-h programme of differentiation. Within 6 h, cells move towards aggregation centres in response to pulsatile synthesis and secretion of cyclic AMP. At about 12 h, aggregates of 10(5) cells are formed, held together by newly made surface adhesion molecules. The cells then differentiate into the two principal types found in the terminal stage of development, spores and stalks. Here we show that the chemotaxis and aggregation stages of this developmental programme can be described as a series of sequential events in which these extracellular signals--starvation, cyclic AMP and cell-cell contact--induce specific, sequential changes in the pattern of gene expression.
饥饿时，细胞黏菌盘基网柄菌会启动一个24小时的分化程序。在6小时内，细胞会响应环磷酸腺苷的脉冲式合成和分泌，向聚集中心移动。大约在12小时时，会形成由新产生的表面黏附分子聚集在一起的10⁵个细胞的聚集体。然后，这些细胞分化为发育终末期发现的两种主要类型，即孢子和柄细胞。我们在此表明，这个发育程序的趋化和聚集阶段可被描述为一系列连续事件，其中这些细胞外信号——饥饿、环磷酸腺苷和细胞间接触——会诱导基因表达模式发生特定的、连续的变化。
