Cell cannibalism

The uninuclear, hierarchial Amoebozoans, with the ability to form syncytia [2271], which crawl and phagocytose (cell cannibalism) appears to be the direction toward which the cells (de-differentiating stem or somatic cells) descend on the evolutionary scale during their so called malignant transformation . In nature, under natural circumstances, among the extant descendents of the ancient unicellular eukaryotes, it is not possible to readily find colonies that would resemble that of the HeLa cells. Under adverse circumstances, as in the Hydractinia colony, it may happen that de-differentiated cells overgrow the colony. 

M. Krajcovic and M. Overholtzer, Mechanisms of ploidy increase in human cancer a new role for cell cannibalism. Cancer Res., 2012, 72, 1596-1601. 

Example 12.7 Develop a model for the anaerobic batch fermentation of glucose to ethanol and coproduct CO2 using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The starting mixture contains 10% glucose. The inoculum is 0.0005 w/w. Product inhibition stops cell growth at 14% ethanol. Assume ka = 0 but include the cannibalization of cellular material beginning when the substrate is completely consumed. 

Autophagy A Greek work derived from auto meaning self and phagy meaning to eat . It represents self-cannibalism of a cell that presents as cellular degradation with numerous intracellular vacuoles. 

The last piece of evidence was making the numbers add up. Wolfe-Simon s very low phosphate level was not enough for a cell to live on, so how did they make up the difference A lab from Miami found out a somewhat grisly secret these bacteria scraped up phosphate by cannibalizing the ribosome, the most important molecule in the cell. 

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