美国约翰霍普金斯大学Erika L. Pearce研究小组发现，固硫可促进养分限制期间的多细胞性。相关论文于2021年2月24日在线发表在《自然》杂志上。
研究人员发现，由于营养限制而产生的活性氧导致抗氧化剂谷胱甘肽中的半胱氨酸被隔离。这种螯合限制了半胱氨酸的硫原子在有助于线粒体代谢和细胞增殖的过程中的使用，例如蛋白质翻译和包含铁硫簇的酶的活性。硫的固定螯合使盘基网柄菌保持在非增殖状态，这为多细胞发育铺平了道路。这种通过活性氧进行信号传递的机制突出了氧和硫，它们是决定早期真核生物中细胞命运的简单信号分子，对多细胞真核生物对营养物波动的响应具有影响。
据介绍，盘基网柄菌的行为取决于营养元素。当存在足够的食物时，这些变形虫以单细胞状态存在，但在饥饿时它们会聚集成多细胞生物。这种生物学使盘基网柄菌成为研究基本代谢如何控制细胞分化和功能的理想模型。
附：英文原文
Title: Sulfur sequestration promotes multicellularity during nutrient limitation
Author: Beth Kelly, Gustavo E. Carrizo, Joy Edwards-Hicks, David E. Sanin, Michal A. Stanczak, Chantal Priesnitz, Lea J. Flachsmann, Jonathan D. Curtis, Gerhard Mittler, Yaarub Musa, Thomas Becker, Joerg M. Buescher, Erika L. Pearce
Issue&Volume: 2021-02-24
Abstract: The behaviour of Dictyostelium discoideum depends on nutrients1. When sufficient food is present these amoebae exist in a unicellular state, but upon starvation they aggregate into a multicellular organism2,3. This biology makes D. discoideum an ideal model for investigating how fundamental metabolism commands cell differentiation and function. Here we show that reactive oxygen species—generated as a consequence of nutrient limitation—lead to the sequestration of cysteine in the antioxidant glutathione. This sequestration limits the use of the sulfur atom of cysteine in processes that contribute to mitochondrial metabolism and cellular proliferation, such as protein translation and the activity of enzymes that contain an iron–sulfur cluster. The regulated sequestration of sulfur maintains D. discoideum in a nonproliferating state that paves the way for multicellular development. This mechanism of signalling through reactive oxygen species highlights oxygen and sulfur as simple signalling molecules that dictate cell fate in an early eukaryote, with implications for responses to nutrient fluctuations in multicellular eukaryotes.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03270-3
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03270-3
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
