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What the papers say: Cellular dedifferentiation and spore germination in Dictyostelium may utilize similar regulatory pathways
Author(s) -
PowellCoffman Jo Anne,
Firtel Richard A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.950150210
Subject(s) - dictyostelium discoideum , multicellular organism , slime mold , biology , morphogenesis , dictyostelium , spore germination , microbiology and biotechnology , mycetozoa , spore , organism , sporogenesis , gene , genetics , botany
Cellular dedifferentiation is an important developmental response to perturbations in morphogenesis. In the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum this process gives cells the flexibility, when multicellular development is disrupted, to respond to nutrients and reinitiate vegetative growth. Recent studies in D. discoideum described by Soll and colleagues (1) show that genes previously thought to be expressed only during spore germination are also expressed during induced dedifferentiation, suggesting that similar molecular mechanisms are involved in these two developmental processes. It should now be possible to determine whether the developmental programs that control dedifferentiation during spore germination also control conversion of cell types in the multicellular organism.