title: Pleomorphic mammalian tumor-derived bacteria self-organize as multicellular mammalian eukaryotic-like organisms: morphogenetic properties in vitro, possible origins, and possible roles in mammalian 'tumor ecologies'.
abstract: Highly pleomorphic bacteria have regularly been isolated from mammalian tumors and leukemic bloods. Here, it is shown that highly pleomorphic, cell-wall deficient bacteria derived from a mammalian tumor self-organize in vitro into mammalian tissue-like morphogenetic patterns consisting of multicellular tissue-like sheets and capillary-like networks. It is proposed that these pleomorphic mammalian tumor-derived (MTD) bacteria, during morphogenesis, express mammalian tissue morphogenesis-related genes that were acquired through eukaryote-to-prokaryote DNA transfer. Similar pleomorphic MTD bacteria might play important roles as symbiotic multicellular mammalian eukaryotic-like organisms in mammalian 'tumor ecologies' that include malignant and nonmalignant mammalian eukaryotic cells. From a mammalian tumor ecology perspective, eradication of tumors in some mammalian hosts may depend upon the elimination of pleomorphic MTD bacteria self-organized as symbiotic multicellular mammalian eukaryotic-like organisms. Further investigations of the extraordinary mammalian eukaryotic-like multicellularity of these bacteria may yield fundamental insights into the evolution of multicellularity and multicellular development and may challenge basic assumptions regarding cellular evolution.
authors.affiliation: deNovo Biologic LLC, 5528 North 24th Street, Arlington, VA 22205-3113, USA. douglas.robinson@denovobiologic.com
authors.forename: Douglas H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000235:genetics; D004285:Dogs; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology*; D018874:Spheroids, Cellular / Q000473:pathology*; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000235:genetics; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured