Morphogenesis in the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum: 1. The accumulation and erasure of “morphogenetic information”☆

[摘要] WhendevelopingculturesofthecellularslimemoldDictyosteliumdiscoideumaredisaggregatedandmorphogenesisimmediatelyreinitiated,theyrecapitulatethemorphogeneticscheme,butatanincreasedrate.Employingthisfeatureofthesystem,wehaveidentifiedtimeperiodswhen“information”accumulatesforspecificmorphogeneticevents.Inthiscase,wehavedefined“morphogeneticinformation”asthereductionintimefortheappearanceofaparticularmorphologyduringmorphogeneticrecapitulation.Accumulatedinformationcanbeerasedbydisaggregatingdevelopingculturesandreinoculatingthemintoliquidgrowthmedium.Erasureoccursasadiscreteeventandcanbeblockedbyinhibitingproteinsynthesis.Bycomparingmorphogenesisinlog-phaseandstationary-phasecultures,atleasttwoparalleltimershavebeendistinguished,onespecificforaggregationandoneormorespecificformorphogeneticeventsfollowingaggregation.Approachestothemolecularidentityofmorphogeneticinformationandmorphogenetictimersarediscussed.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）