title: Spontaneous Cell Competition in Immortalized Mammalian Cell Lines.
abstract: Cell competition is a form of cell-cell interaction by which cells compare relative levels of fitness, resulting in the active elimination of less-fit cells, "losers," by more-fit cells, "winners." Here, we show that in three routinely-used mammalian cell lines - U2OS, 3T3, and MDCK cells - sub-clones arise stochastically that exhibit context-dependent competitive behavior. Specifically, cell death is elicited when winner and loser sub-clones are cultured together but not alone. Cell competition and elimination in these cell lines is caspase-dependent and requires cell-cell contact but does not require de novo RNA synthesis. Moreover, we show that the phenomenon involves differences in cellular metabolism. Hence, our study demonstrates that cell competition is a common feature of immortalized mammalian cells in vitro and implicates cellular metabolism as a mechanism by which cells sense relative levels of "fitness."
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Alfredo I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Penzo-Méndez
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Yi-Ju
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jinyang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Biology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eric S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Witze
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ben Z
authors.initials: BZ
authors.lastname: Stanger
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism*; D002450:Cell Communication; D002460:Cell Line; D018920:Coculture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D061985:Madin Darby Canine Kidney Cells; D051379:Mice; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D020169:Caspases