Hugh Z Ford

Abstract Gradients of extracellular signals organise cells in tissues. Although there are several models for how gradients can pattern cell behaviour, it is not clear how cells react to gradients when the population is undergoing 3D morphogenesis, in which cell-cell and cell-signal interactions are continually changing. Dictyostelium cells follow gradients of their nutritional source to feed and maintain their undifferentiated state.

Around half of all fish species spend a portion of their lives as part of a group or ‘school’ (Shaw, 1978). Swimming together offers a wide range of benefits, such as improved sensing, decision-making and navigation (Berdahl et al., 2013). It has also long been thought that moving in a school could reduce the energy expended by the fish as they swim. However, proving that swimming with others does save energy – and, if it does, how – has been challenging.

Abstract Cells use signal relay to transmit information across tissue scales. However, the production of information carried by signal relay remains poorly characterised. To determine how the coding features of signal relay are generated, we used the classic system for long-range signalling: the periodic cAMP waves that drive Dictyostelium collective migration.