Cellular heterogeneity results from indirect effects under metabolic tradeoffs.

ABSTRACT: The emergence and maintenance of multicellularity requires the coexistence of diverse cellular populations displaying cooperative relationships. This enables long-term persistence of cellular consortia, particularly under environmental constraints that challenge cell survival. Toxic environments are known to trigger the formation of multicellular consortia capable of dealing with waste while promoting cell diversity as a way to overcome selection barriers. In this context, recent theoretical studies suggest that an environment containing both resources and toxic waste can promote the emergence of complex, spatially distributed proto-organisms exhibiting division of labour and higher-scale features beyond the cell-cell pairwise interactions. Some previous non-spatial models suggest t

SUBMITTER: Olle-Vila A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6774940 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature