Ancient association of cyanobacterial multicellularity with the regulator HetR and an RGSGR pentapeptide‐containing protein (PatX)

What is it about?

The development of spaced nitrogen-fixing cells (heterocysts) by multicellular cyanobacteria provides perhaps the simplest system through which to study intercellular signaling and patterned differentiation. We found that a pair of proteins that may interact to regulate heterocyst development and pattern formation evolved long before the invention of these specialized cells, near the advent of multicellularity itself.

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