Phenotype Switching in Polymorphic Tetrahymena: A Single-Cell Jekyll and Hyde

Ryals, Phillip E.; Smith-Somerville, Harriett E.; Buhse, Howard E.

doi:10.1016/s0074-7696(01)12006-1

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…The ability to maintain distinct morphotypes as a generalist with a flexible “behavioral” strategy leads to cells that are genetically identical but manifest a diversity of environmentally contingent traits. The molecular mechanisms underlying this transition are unknown 70 . However, research on the phenotypic plasticity in social insects, i.e.…”

Section: Cell Plasticity and Life History Tradeoffsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life history trade-offs in cancer evolution

Aktipis¹,

et al. 2013

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Somatic evolution during cancer progression and therapy results in tumor cells that exhibit a wide range of phenotypes including rapid proliferation and quiescence. Evolutionary life history theory may help us understand the diversity of these phenotypes. Fast life history organisms reproduce rapidly while those with slow life histories show less fecundity and invest more resources in survival. Life history theory also provides an evolutionary framework for phenotypic plasticity with potential implications for understanding ‘cancer stem cells’. Life history theory suggests that different therapy dosing schedules could select for fast or slow life history cell phenotypes, with important clinical consequences.

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Section: Cell Plasticity and Life History Tradeoffsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life history trade-offs in cancer evolution

Aktipis¹,

et al. 2013

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“…Its larger oral cavity permits consumption of other smaller protists, including conspecific microstomes. Macrostomes are generally less common than microstomes, and their formation is induced by chemical cues released by potential prey (Ryals et al 2002…”

Section: Study Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonization History Determines Alternate Community States in a Food Web of Intraguild Predators

Price

Morin

2004

Ecology

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Several recent studies suggest that community composition can take on alternate, apparently stable, states. For the most part, these studies are observational in nature and have not shown that alternate states arise from the order of species arrival during community assembly. Previous studies also provide little insight into the mechanisms that create alternate states, especially when direct species interactions, rather than environmental feedback, control their formation. We conducted experiments in identical physical environments to show that differences in the sequence of community assembly can create alternate species compositions that persist for many generations. Assembly sequence determined whether experimental food webs contained a single intraguild predator, or two intraguild predators. When the intraguild predator, Blepharisma americanum, became established in communities before the introduction of Tetrahymena vorax, combined effects of resource depletion and intraguild predation prevented the establishment of Tetrahymena. In contrast, when Tetrahymena preceded Blepharisma, both species frequently coexisted. Supporting experiments describe the exploitative competitive abilities of both intraguild predators, document the population dynamics of each species in less complex community modules, and determine the ability of Tetrahymena to invade Blepharisma cultures in the absence of competing prey. These results show that both competition and predation contribute to the formation of two alternate community states and confirm that one stable state resists transformation to the other.

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“…The ability of cells to undergo transitions among a limited number of discrete, stable epigenetic states and to propagate such decisions from one cell generation to the next is clearly essential to metazoan development. But even organisms that have traditionally been considered unicellular, including bacteria, fungi, protists and algae exhibit alternative states of differentiation due to stochastic effects or as functions of particular conditions, which can be environmental, social, a combination of both (Pan and Snell 2000;Kaiser 2001;Ryals et al 2002;Blankenship and Mitchell 2006;Süel et al 2006Süel et al , 2007Vlamakis et al 2008). The role of transcription factor networks in mediating condition-dependent switching between or among alternative cellular phenotypes in singlecelled organisms (Papp and Oliver 2005) strongly suggests that cell-state switching networks had their origins not primarily as regulators of multicellular development, but rather as mediators of unicellular plasticity.…”

Section: Dynamic Multistability Developmental Transcription Factors mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell state switching factors and dynamical patterning modules: complementary mediators of plasticity in development and evolution

2009

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Ancient metazoan organisms arose from unicellular eukaryotes that had billions of years of genetic evolution behind them. The transcription factor networks present in single-celled ancestors at the origin of the Metazoa (multicellular animals) were already capable of mediating the switching of the unicellular phenotype among alternative states of gene activity in response to environmental conditions. Cell differentiation, therefore, had its roots in phenotypic plasticity, with the ancient regulatory proteins acquiring new targets over time and evolving into the "developmental transcription factors" (DTFs) of the "developmental-genetic toolkit." In contrast, the emergence of pattern formation and morphogenesis in the Metazoa had a different trajectory. Aggregation of unicellular metazoan ancestors changed the organisms' spatial scale, leading to the first "dynamical patterning module" (DPM): cell-cell adhesion. Following this, other DPMs (defined as physical forces and processes pertinent to the scale of the aggregates mobilized by a set of toolkit gene products distinct from the DTFs), transformed simple cell aggregates into hollow, multilayered, segmented, differentiated and additional complex structures, with minimal evolution of constituent genes. Like cell differentiation, therefore, metazoan morphologies also originated from plastic responses of cells and tissues. Here we describe examples of DTFs and most of the important DPMs, discussing their complementary roles in the evolution of developmental mechanisms. We also provide recently characterized examples of DTFs in cell type switching and DPMs in morphogenesis of avian limb bud mesenchyme, an embryo-derived tissue that retains a high degree of developmental plasticity.

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Phenotype Switching in Polymorphic Tetrahymena: A Single-Cell Jekyll and Hyde

Cited by 20 publications

References 85 publications

Life history trade-offs in cancer evolution

Life history trade-offs in cancer evolution

Colonization History Determines Alternate Community States in a Food Web of Intraguild Predators

Cell state switching factors and dynamical patterning modules: complementary mediators of plasticity in development and evolution

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