Conflict and constraint in multicellular life cycles

多细胞生命周期中的冲突和约束

• 批准号: 1146375
• 负责人: David Queller
• 金额: $ 74万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Conflict; constraint; multicellular; life; cycles

This work will explore two fundamental questions about multicellularity. First, are the early stages of development necessarily the hardest to change? This seems true in animals, but the project will test whether this pattern is general, using genomic data in a very different multicellular system, a social amoeba in which is normally a single-celled eukaryote, but upon starvation aggregates and differentiates into a structure with reproductive spores and sterile stalk cells. The second question is, how do multicellular organisms protect themselves from mutant cell lineages that replicate too fast? The project will use the novel strategy of constructing pseudo-organisms with artificial life cycles. By allowing these to evolve and monitoring cellular cooperation, the project will isolate factors that maintain multicellularity.The most advanced organisms on earth, including people, animals, and plants, are all multicellular. Yet there is much that we do not understand about how and why multicellularity works. By focusing an unusual developmental system, the project will test how events at one time or place in development affect and constrain events at other times and places. They will also conduct the first rigorous tests of what life cycles protect against conflict among cells - cancer being a prominent example. The project will contribute to scientific training and will reach out to the public via websites, science cafes, and events for K-12 students.

这项工作将探讨两个关于多细胞的基本问题。首先，发展的早期阶段一定是最难改变的吗？这在动物中似乎是正确的，但该项目将测试这种模式是否普遍，使用一个非常不同的多细胞系统中的基因组数据，一种社会性变形虫，其中通常是单细胞真核生物，但在饥饿时聚集并分化成具有生殖孢子和不育柄细胞的结构。第二个问题是，多细胞生物如何保护自己不受复制过快的突变细胞谱系的影响？该项目将使用构建具有人工生命周期的伪生物体的新策略。通过允许这些进化和监测细胞合作，该项目将分离维持多细胞的因素。地球上最先进的生物体，包括人，动物和植物，都是多细胞的。然而，我们对多细胞生物如何以及为什么起作用还有很多不了解的地方。通过关注一个不寻常的发展系统，该项目将测试在发展中的一个时间或地点的事件如何影响和约束其他时间和地点的事件。他们还将进行第一次严格的测试，以了解生命周期如何防止细胞之间的冲突-癌症就是一个突出的例子。 该项目将有助于科学培训，并将通过网站，科学咖啡馆和K-12学生的活动向公众宣传。