Control of pattern formation in Dictyostelium discoideum

A classic example of self-generated patterns in nature is found in the social amobae Dictyostelium discoideum. When starved, millions of individual cells signal each other with the signaling molecule cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). cAMP waves in the form of spiral or target patterns propagate in cell populations and direct aggregation of individual cells to form centimeter-scale Voronoi domains and eventually multicellular fruiting bodies. In this study, we control the shape of Voronoi domains by introducing periodic geometrical obstacles with different size and periodicity in the system. We observe that the obstacles act as aggregation centers and the periodic arrangement of the obstacles is reflected directly in the corresponding Voronoi domains.