期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2005
卷号：102
期号：32
页码：11308-11312
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0504259102
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Myxobacteria provide one of the simplest models of cell-cell interaction and organized cell movement leading to cellular differentiation. When starved, tens of thousands of cells change their movement pattern from outward spreading to inward concentration; they form aggregates that become fruiting bodies. Cells inside fruiting bodies differentiate into round, nonmotile, environmentally resistant spores. Traditionally, cell aggregation has been considered to imply chemotaxis; a long-range cell interaction. However, myxobacterial aggregation is the consequence of direct cell-contact interactions, not chemotaxis. We present here a 3D stochastic lattice-gas cellular automata model of cell aggregation based on local cell-cell contact, and no chemotaxis. We demonstrate that a 3D discrete stochastic model can simulate two stages of cell aggregation. First, a "traffic jam" forms embedded in a field of motile cells. The jam then becomes an aggregation center that accumulates more cells. We show that, at high cell density, cells stream around the traffic jam, generating a 3D hemispherical mound. Later, when the nuclear traffic jam dissolves, the aggregation center becomes a 3D ring of streaming cells.
