A transcriptional profile of multicellular development in Dictyostelium discoideum.
A distinct feature of development in the simple eukaryote Dictyostelium discoideum is an aggregative transition from a unicellular to a multicellular phase. Using genome-wide transcriptional analysis we show that this transition is accompanied by a dramatic change in the expression of more than 25% of the genes in the genome. We also show that the transcription patterns of these genes are not sensitive to the strain or the nutritional history, indicating that Dictyostelium development is a robust physiological process that is accompanied by stereotypical transcriptional events. Analysis of the two differentiated cell types, spores and stalk cells, and their precursors revealed a large number of differentially expressed genes as well as unexpected patterns of gene expression, which shed new light on the timing and possible mechanisms of cell-type divergence. Our findings provide new perspectives on the complexity of the developmental program and the fraction of the genome that is regulated during development.
Van Driessche
Nancy
N
Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston TX 77030, USA.
Shaw
Chad
C
Katoh
Mariko
M
Morio
Takahiro
T
Sucgang
Richard
R
Ibarra
Miroslava
M
Kuwayama
Hidekazu
H
Saito
Tamao
T
Urushihara
Hideko
H
Maeda
Mineko
M
Takeuchi
Ikuo
I
Ochiai
Hiroshi
H
Eaton
William
W
Tollett
Jeffrey
J
Halter
John
J
Kuspa
Adam
A
Tanaka
Yoshimasa
Y
Shaulsky
Gad
G
D000818:Animals; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018503:Genome, Protozoan; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014158:Transcription, Genetic