Abstract
Cellular communications play pivotal roles in multi-cellular species, but they do so also in uni-cellular species. Moreover, cells communicate with each other not only within the same individual, but also with cells in other individuals belonging to the same or other species. These communications occur between two unicellular species, two multicellular species, or between unicellular and multicellular species. The molecular mechanisms involved exhibit diversity and specificity, but they share common basic features, which allow common pathways of communication between different species, often phylogenetically very distant. These interactions are possible by the high degree of conservation of the basic molecular mechanisms of interaction of many ligand–receptor pairs in evolutionary remote species. These inter-species cellular communications played crucial roles during Evolution and must have been positively selected, particularly when collectively beneficial in hostile environments. It is likely that communications between cells did not arise after their emergence, but were part of the very nature of the first cells. Synchronization of populations of non-living protocells through chemical communications may have been a mandatory step towards their emergence as populations of living cells and explain the large commonality of cell communication mechanisms among microorganisms, plants, and animals.
Highlights
The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living organisms
The coordination of the lysis-lysogeny decision of phages in Bacillus is based on the release of phage-specific communication hexapeptides. These peptides are imported in bacteria by the oligopeptide permease transporter (OPP) and bind to their intracellular receptors, which no longer activate the expression of an inhibitor of lysogeny [20,21,22]
When the density of bacterial prey becomes low compared with the amoeba population, the concentration of the pre-starvation factor (PSF) sensor protein decreases, leading to activation of protein kinase YakA, which relieves the inhibition of expression of a cAMP-dependent protein kinase
Summary
The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living organisms. Unicellular organisms such as bacteria, archeas, yeasts, or protists consist of a single cell. Multicellular organisms such as sponges, nematodes, trees, or vertebrates can comprise from a few hundred to several billion or even trillion of cells In such complex multicellular species, the cells exhibit many differentiated phenotypes playing highly-specialized functions and are often associated within individualized organs. Information exchanges are not limited to cells inside an organism, not even to cells belonging to one given species They exist between cells from different species, whether unicellular or multicellular. Unicellular species have been prosperous for approximately 3.5 billion years and still represent the vast majority of living species They can communicate indirectly through soluble mediators to regulate their growth and/or phenotype according to the available food resources. Cell communications occur inside multicellular species, and in unicellular species, as well as between different species, whether unicellular and/or multicellular
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