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Cambridge Healthtech Institute

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Science 30 October 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5390, p. 841
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5390.841j
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Filamentous multicellular colonies of the cyanobacterium Anabaena require both photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation, but these processes must occur in different cells. Determination of the fate and organization of these two cell types within the colony represents a simplified case of pattern formation. Yoon and Golden (p. 935; see the Perspective by Haselkorn ) have identified a small peptide signal that emanates from one cell type to inhibit differentiation of similar neighbors. Thus, through cell-cell signaling, the nitrogen-fixing cells form a pattern distributed throughout the colony of cyanobacteria.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)