Projektnummer

0066860

Zusammenfassung

The evolution of complex multicellular organisms 600 million years ago required sophisticated cell-cell communication systems to coordinate growth, differentiation, and tissue organization. This evolutionary leap is thought to have required a fundamental change in protein organization at the key interface for intercellular communication: the cell surface. Phylogenetic data have shown that the tetraspanin family of membrane organizing proteins co-evolved with multicellularity, but the large-scale functional contribution of tetraspanin-based membrane protein organization to intercellular...