The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum employs a terpene synthase-cytochrome P450 metabolic gene cluster to produce a novel trisnorsesquiterpene discodiene.
Inactivation of the Dictyostelium orthologue of the tumour suppressor Neurofibromin (NF1) enables amoebae to ingest dissolved nutrients using macropinocytosis more rapidly, and to prey on larger organisms using phagocytosis.
The probability of a cellular response to a differentiation inducing signal is correlated with the dynamic expression of a Ras protein, and produces a ‘salt and pepper’ pattern of cell differentiation.
Efficient dedifferentiation is characterized by robustness to mutation, flexibility in ordering of cellular events and reversal of developmental changes along a single gene expression trajectory.
There should be a prominent place for theory within biology papers, both as Results in papers that combine experiment and theory, and as Results in theory papers.
Shifts in the balance between nucleotide-favorable and nucleotide-unfavorable conformations of myosin motors encode duty ratios and ADP release rates, demonstrating the power of an ensemble perspective for uncovering sequence-function relationships.
Cellularization in Sphaeroforma arctica generates a self-organized structure that morphologically resembles an epithelium, and is associated with tightly regulated expression of cell adhesion pathways.
Macropinocytosis, the process of non-specific endocytosis, is a major gateway for large volumes of surrounding medium and nanoparticles to coral cells.
