Just the right size: cell counting in Dictyostelium.
The regulation of tissue and organism size plays an essential, but poorly understood, role in multicellular development. Genes have been identified that affect body and organ size in a number of animals. Two recently identified genes, smlA and countin, are required for the proper function of a cell-counting mechanism that regulates organism size in the eukaryotic microorganism Dictyostelium discoideum. The discovery of this process now allows the study of size regulation in a simple multicellular system.
Brown
J M
JM
Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biology, Center for Molecular Genetics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0634, USA. jmbrown@ucsd.edu
Firtel
R A
RA
D000818:Animals; D001824:Body Constitution / Q000235:genetics*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D009154:Mutation; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C101537:SmlA protein, Dictyostelium discoideum; C120918:countin protein, Dictyostelium discoideum