Abstract
I have been asked to speak about the cellular slime mold as a model system for analyzing the biochemical basis of differentiation. It is a model system by two reasonable and useful definitions. If one usually thinks of differentiation or morphogenesis as something properly experienced only by organisms at least as complicated as a sea urchin, then the lowly slime mold is only a model, which exhibits behavior closely resembling differentiation. In this context, I shall describe many characteristics of the slime mold which are amazingly similar to, and undoubtedly the ancestor of, differentiation in higher organisms. Of course, if one is a firm believer in evolution and comparative biochemistry, he may consider slime mold behavior quite respectable enough to include in his definition of differentiation. In that event, when we study the slime mold we are not looking hopefully at a model system: we are looking at the real thing!
This is publication No. 1287 of the Cancer Commission of Harvard University. This investigation was supported by grant GM-08958-06 from The U.S. Public Health Service.
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Wright, B.E. (1968). Differentiation in the Cellular Slime Mold. In: Mesarović, M.D. (eds) Systems Theory and Biology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-88343-9_5
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