Dictyostelium cells shown to lay 'breadcrumb trail' as first step in multicellular formation

When starved of their food source and then presented with a chemoattractant signal like cAMP, individual Dictyostelium cells acquire a polarized morphology and aggregate to form a migrating stream. This is the first step in a developmental program that culminates in the formation of a multicellular organism. Kriebel et al. show how this streaming response is coordinated at a single-cell level in the December 1, 2008 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.

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