Cancer and the breakdown of multicellularity: What Dictyostelium discoideum, a social amoeba, can teach us

Sabateeshan Mathavarajah; Carter VanIderstine; Graham Dellaire; Robert J. Huber

doi:10.1002/bies.202000156

Cancer and the breakdown of multicellularity: What Dictyostelium discoideum, a social amoeba, can teach us

Sabateeshan Mathavarajah, Carter VanIderstine, Graham Dellaire, Robert J. Huber

Résultat de recherche: Article › examen par les pairs

12 Citations (Scopus)

Résumé

Ancient pathways promoting unicellularity and multicellularity are associated with cancer, the former being pro-oncogenic and the latter acting to suppress oncogenesis. However, there are only a limited number of non-vertebrate models for studying these pathways. Here, we review Dictyostelium discoideum and describe how it can be used to understand these gene networks. D. discoideum has a unicellular and multicellular life cycle, making it possible to study orthologs of cancer-associated genes in both phases. During development, differentiated amoebae form a fruiting body composed of a mass of spores that are supported atop a stalk. A portion of the cells sacrifice themselves to become non-reproductive stalk cells. Cheating disrupts the principles of multicellularity, as cheater cells alter their cell fate to preferentially become spores. Importantly, D. discoideum has gene networks and several strategies for maintaining multicellularity. Therefore, D. discoideum can help us better understand how conserved genes and pathways involved in multicellularity also influence cancer development, potentially identifying new therapeutic avenues.

Langue d'origine	English
Numéro d'article	2000156
Journal	BioEssays
Volume	43
Numéro de publication	4
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000156
Statut de publication	Published - avr. 2021

Note bibliographique

Funding Information:
This review was supported by Discovery Grants from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN‐2020‐04034 to G.D. and RGPIN‐2018‐04855 to R.J.H.). S.M. was supported by a Killam Pre‐Doctoral Award, a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship, and a President's Award from Dalhousie University. We would like to thank Megan Aoki (Trent University) for allowing us to use their photos of development. We would also like to thank Celine Chedrawe for their critical reading of the manuscript prior to submission D. discoideum

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

ODD de l’ONU

Cette action contribue à la réalisation des objectifs de développement durable suivants

Accès au document

10.1002/bies.202000156

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title = "Cancer and the breakdown of multicellularity: What Dictyostelium discoideum, a social amoeba, can teach us",

abstract = "Ancient pathways promoting unicellularity and multicellularity are associated with cancer, the former being pro-oncogenic and the latter acting to suppress oncogenesis. However, there are only a limited number of non-vertebrate models for studying these pathways. Here, we review Dictyostelium discoideum and describe how it can be used to understand these gene networks. D. discoideum has a unicellular and multicellular life cycle, making it possible to study orthologs of cancer-associated genes in both phases. During development, differentiated amoebae form a fruiting body composed of a mass of spores that are supported atop a stalk. A portion of the cells sacrifice themselves to become non-reproductive stalk cells. Cheating disrupts the principles of multicellularity, as cheater cells alter their cell fate to preferentially become spores. Importantly, D. discoideum has gene networks and several strategies for maintaining multicellularity. Therefore, D. discoideum can help us better understand how conserved genes and pathways involved in multicellularity also influence cancer development, potentially identifying new therapeutic avenues.",

author = "Sabateeshan Mathavarajah and Carter VanIderstine and Graham Dellaire and Huber, {Robert J.}",

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volume = "43",

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N2 - Ancient pathways promoting unicellularity and multicellularity are associated with cancer, the former being pro-oncogenic and the latter acting to suppress oncogenesis. However, there are only a limited number of non-vertebrate models for studying these pathways. Here, we review Dictyostelium discoideum and describe how it can be used to understand these gene networks. D. discoideum has a unicellular and multicellular life cycle, making it possible to study orthologs of cancer-associated genes in both phases. During development, differentiated amoebae form a fruiting body composed of a mass of spores that are supported atop a stalk. A portion of the cells sacrifice themselves to become non-reproductive stalk cells. Cheating disrupts the principles of multicellularity, as cheater cells alter their cell fate to preferentially become spores. Importantly, D. discoideum has gene networks and several strategies for maintaining multicellularity. Therefore, D. discoideum can help us better understand how conserved genes and pathways involved in multicellularity also influence cancer development, potentially identifying new therapeutic avenues.

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Cancer and the breakdown of multicellularity: What Dictyostelium discoideum, a social amoeba, can teach us

Résumé

Note bibliographique

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

PubMed: MeSH publication types

ODD de l’ONU

Accès au document

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