Search

Cell-to-cell communication is fundamental to the organization and functionality of multicellular organisms. Intercellular signals orchestrate a variety of cellular responses, including gene expression and protein function changes, and contribute to the integrated functions of individual tissues. Dictyostelium discoideum is a model organism for cell-to-cell interactions mediated by chemical signals and multicellular formation mechanisms. Upon starvation, D. discoideum cells exhibit coordinated cell aggregation via cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP) gradients and chemotaxis, which facilitates the unicellular-to-multicellular transition. During this process, the calcium signaling synchronizes with the cAMP signaling. The resulting multicellular body exhibits organized collective migration and ultimately forms a fruiting body. Various signaling molecules, such as ion signals, regulate the spatiotemporal differentiation patterns within multicellular bodies. Understanding cell-to-cell and ion signaling in Dictyostelium provides insight into general multicellular formation and differentiation processes. Exploring cell-to-cell and ion signaling enhances our understanding of the fundamental biological processes related to cell communication, coordination, and differentiation, with wide-ranging implications for developmental biology, evolutionary biology, biomedical research, and synthetic biology. In this review, I discuss the role of ion signaling in cell motility and development in D. discoideum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sizes of multiple cells vary when they communicate with each other. Differences in cell size result in variations in the cell surface area and volume, as well as the number of enzymes and receptors involved in signal transduction. Although heterogeneity in cell size may inhibit uniformity in signaling, cell-to-cell signaling is still possible. The outcome when cell size changes to an extreme degree remains unclear. Hence, we inhibited cell division in Dictyostelium cells, a model organism for signal transduction, to gain insights into the consequences of extreme cell size variations. Measurements of cell signals in this population using fluorescence microscopy indicated that the giant cells can communicate with normal-sized cells by suppressing the signal level. Simulations of signal transduction based on the FitzHugh-Nagumo model also suggested similar results. Our findings suggest that signaling mechanism homogenizes cell-to-cell signaling in response to cell size., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)