Conflict and constraint in multicellular life cycles

这项工作将探讨关于多细胞的两个基本问题。首先，发展的早期阶段一定是最难改变的吗？这在动物身上似乎是正确的，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的基因组数据，一个社会变形虫，通常是一个单细胞真核生物，但在饥饿时聚集并分化成一个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免受复制过快的突变细胞系的影响？该项目将使用构建具有人工生命周期的伪生物的新策略。通过允许它们进化并监测细胞合作，该项目将分离维持多细胞性的因素。地球上最高级的生物，包括人、动物和植物，都是多细胞生物。然而，对于多细胞如何以及为什么起作用，我们还有很多不了解的地方。通过关注一个不寻常的开发系统，项目将测试开发中某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生命周期测试，以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、科学咖啡馆和面向K-12学生的活动与公众接触。

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.