The basis of communication between cells within the choanoflagellate

What are the common characteristics of a cell and a cell-structure choanoflagellate? Definitely more than what we can know. A new study of the choanoflagellate genome shows that ancient organisms have the same protein ratio that the cells of more advanced organisms, including humans, used to communicate with each other.

According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, the research results help confirm the role of choanoflagellate as an evolutionary link between single-celled and multicellular organisms. The results also suggest that the knowledge gained about the single-celled genome may prove that the proteins used to support communication cells may also play other roles. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.

Choanoflagellate, or at least their ancestors, has long been thought to be a bridge between microorganisms with only one cell and metazoan, a multicellular organism. There are many clues that lead to this conclusion, which include the structure of choanoflagellates that are similar in structure to individual sponges of sponges, unlike other flagellates, which use their tails to move their bodies in the water stream. Don't use your tail to pull your body.

Illustration choanoflagellate.Researchers have recently discovered that organisms only have a single cell that makes them unique because they contain the molecules that cells of multicellular organisms use to communicate with each other.The results of the study shed light on the mechanism by which multicellular organisms evolved and opened up the unidentified uses of the said communication molecules.(Photo: Mateus Zica)

By analyzing the newly sequenced genome of the choanoflagellate, the researchers discovered another similarity between choanoflagellate with most metazoan: the choanoflagellate gene code contains markers of three types of molecules. Cells used to obtain phospho-tyrosine signaling proteins.

Animals depend on the process of phosphorylation of tyrosine to perform many important interactions between cells, including immune system reactions, hormonal stimulation reactions and reaction reactions. other weak. The phospho-tyrosine signaling pathway uses a three-part system of molecular components to perform communication reactions.

Tyrosine kinases (TyrK) 'write' information between cells by adding phospho-tyrosine, protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTP) to molecules that change or 'delete' phospho-tyrosine changes; Src Homolgy 2 (SH2) is the 'reading' molecule that transforms phospho-tyrosine from which receptor cells can understand the information.

Without these three molecules to help our cells 'write, read and correct' chemical information, our bodies will never be able to perform the complex functions needed for processes exist such as reproduction, food digestion or even breathing.

Other genetic analyzes show that some microorganisms contain some of these molecules in small proportions, but none of them contain all three types of molecules. They may not need tools to help communicate between cells because they only have a single-celled structure. However, what makes choanoflagellate unique is that they have all three essential molecules. Moreover, they are in large numbers often found in larger multicellular organisms.

The researchers concluded that the emergence of a three-component signaling system may have an important role in the development of metazoan organisms, whereby the cells of metazoan are able to communicate with each other in many ways. complex.

Wendell Lim, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco and one of the authors of the article, said: 'Research provides data on evolution. Perhaps the ancestor of choanoflagellate formed the first chemical molecules'.

The researchers also suggested that the genetic trait to express three molecules could provide cells with many different communication abilities, including the ability to be used in single cells.

For David Pincus, the lead author of the article, the study states that for just a single cell carrying all three molecules ' there must be a certain number of signals that exist, apparently those signals. can be distributed to any function the creature wants to perform. '

The authors believe that studying other functions will bring important knowledge to the treatment and repair of abnormal cell development in cancer patients or other disorders.