Journal
CURRENT BIOLOGY
Volume 26, Issue 13, Pages R587-R593Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.057
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the University of Arizona, USA [NNX13AH41G]
- NSF [MCB-1412395]
- Medical Research Council
- University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- NASA [NNX13AH41G, 473679] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience [1412395] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Programmed cell death (PCD) is central to organism development and for a long time was considered a hallmark of multicellularity. Its discovery, therefore, in unicellular organisms presents compelling questions. Why did PCD evolve? What is its ecological effect on communities? To answer these questions, one is compelled to consider the impacts of PCD beyond the cell, for death obviously lowers the fitness of the cell. Here, we examine the ecological effects of PCD in different microbial scenarios and conclude that PCD can increase biological complexity. In mixed microbial communities, the mode of death affects the microenvironment, impacting the interactions between taxa. Where the population comprises groups of relatives, death has a more explicit effect. Death by lysis or other means can be harmful, while PCD can evolve by providing advantages to relatives. The synchronization of death between individuals suggests a group level property is being maintained and the mode of death also appears to have had an impact during the origin of multicellularity. PCD can result in the export of fitness from the cell to the group level via re-usable resources and PCD may also provide a mechanism for how groups beget new groups comprising kin. Furthermore, PCD is a means for solving a central problem of group living - the toxic effects of death - by making resources in dying cells beneficial to others. What emerges from the data reviewed here is that while PCD carries an obvious cost to the cell, it can be a driver of complexity in microbial communities.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available