Although much of dedifferentiation (left) is the reverse of differentiation (right), other expression changes are specific to the process.

Shaulsky/NAS

If life seems like one inexorable process of specialization, take a closer look at the Dictyostelium slug. After forming from aggregated single cells, it is on its way to becoming a specialized fruiting body. But if its cells are dispersed and given nutrients they revert to their primitive, proliferative state. This dedifferentiation, say Mariko Katoh, Gad Shaulsky (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX), and colleagues, is not a simple reversal of differentiation but a carefully regulated process. Similar regulation may ensure that dedifferentiating cells in a mammalian wound, for example, can fill in the wound without causing cancers or distorting the shape of the body part that was carefully crafted during development.

The group's claim is based on microarray results. Many of the transcriptional changes...

The Rockefeller University Press
2004
The Rockefeller University Press
2004
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