title: Follow the leader.
abstract: Upon starvation, individual Dictyostelium amoebae chemotax toward aggregation centers in tightly packed streams in which cells are organized in head-to-tail chains. A recent report in Cell shows that this behavior requires localization of adenylyl cyclase and the production and secretion of the chemoattractant cAMP at the posterior of individual cells. These findings suggest a relay and communication system to regulate the long-range coordinated movement of cells.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences and Center for Molecular Genetics, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0634, USA.
authors.forename: Ruedi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meili
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Firtel
mesh_terms: D000262:Adenylyl Cyclases / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology*; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000502:physiology*; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000378:metabolism*; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000242:Cyclic AMP; D000262:Adenylyl Cyclases