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GREY ZONE CREATURES. "In eukaryotes as well, the distinction between unicellular and multicellular is not always completely clear. For example, the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoidium, is unicellular during part of its life cycle, but upon starvation, cells aggregate and develop into a multicellular motile slug, then fruiting body. Stalk cell death is programmed and is characterized by some classic features of POD." (POD = programmed organismal death). View in LinkedIn

DEATH GLUE. "Recent studies have revealed that the regulated death of bacterial cells is important for biofilm development. Following cell death, a sub-population of the dead bacteria lyse and release genomic DNA, which then has an essential role in intercellular adhesion and biofilm stability." https://lnkd.in/dm2ekKx View in LinkedIn

BIOFILMS. "Some groups of bacterial cells are functionally organized. In lamentous cyanobacteria such as Calothrix and Trichodesmium, poor conditions induce POD in some cells. Because the lament often breaks up as a result, the function of POD in this system could be filament dispersal in response to unfavorable environmental conditions." (POD = programmed organismal death). View in LinkedIn

REF FOR TODAY’S POST. Are Internal, Death-Promoting Mechanisms Ever Adaptive?" "John W Pepper, Deborah E Shelton, Armin Rashidi and Pierre M Durand" "Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology View in LinkedIn

NOVEL FINDING. "Among this subset with eukaryotic sequence homology, the protein domains are almost exclusively found in the phage EAM. An EAM has never before been reported in bacteriophage genomes, to our knowledge, possibly because phages of obligate intracellular bacteria occupy a unique eukaryotic-enclosed niche and are relatively understudied." (EAM = eukaryotic association module). https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

SPARING LIMITED RESOURCES. "As one well-studied example, clonal growth of yeast colonies creates opportunities for strong kin selection and evolution of group-beneficial altruistic traits. PCD could serve at least two altruistic purposes in this context. By dying, a cell may spare nutrient resources for its neighboring kin group." (PCD = programmed cellular death). http://www.esciencecentral.org/journals/are-internal-death-promoting-mechanisms-ever-adaptive-2329-9002.1000113.pdf View in LinkedIn

EAM GENES IN PHAGES. "Notably, over half of these domain types share greater amino-acid homology to eukaryotic invertebrates than to bacteria in GenBank." (EAM = eukaryotic association module). https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

UNICELLULAR FITNESS SELECTION. "These is considerable experimental evidence for fitness advantages from POD to clonal kin groups of cells of species usually considered to be ‘unicellular’. These fitness advantages may represent a significant source of selection pressure." (POD = programmed organismal death). http://www.esciencecentral.org/journals/are-internal-death-promoting-mechanisms-ever-adaptive-2329-9002.1000113.pdf View in LinkedIn

EUKARYOTIC GENES IN PHAGE. "Together, these genes increase the phage WO genome size by roughly 50% and include 10 types of protein domains with four predicted eukaryotic functions: toxins; host–microbe interactions; host cell suicide; and secretion of proteins through the cell membrane." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

SELECTION FOR GROUP. "There is direct experimental evidence for higher-level benefits associated with POD in unicells. In bacterial species, several studies have compared group-level function in POD-positive versus POD- negative strains." (POD = programmed organismal death). http://www.esciencecentral.org/journals/are-internal-death-promoting-mechanisms-ever-adaptive-2329-9002.1000113.pdf View in LinkedIn