Cellular Communication during Aggregation of Dictyostelium: The Second Fleming Lecture: (Delivered at the General Meeting of the Society for General Microbiology on 8 September 1977)

Abstract

The fundamental difference between a population of individuals and a community is that within a community there is communication between the members. This interaction enables organization to be achieved such as we see in human or animal societies. It also occurs, however, at a more basic level between specialized tissues to form a coordinated living organism and between the individual cells that make up these various tissues. Failure of such communication at any level leads to anarchy. While we know a great deal about the forms of communication used between whole