The density of a homogeneous population of cells controls resetting of the program for swarmer formation in the unicellular marine microorganism Noctiluca scintillans.

Noctiluca scintillans is a luminescent marine dinoflagellate. The life cycle of Noctiluca consists of a vegetative stage and a swarmer stage. The swarmer stage of Noctiluca is initiated by formation of a swarmer-mother cell instead of binary fission of vegetative cells. We studied the formation of swarmers under various conditions and became convinced that the cells have a strict program for the formation of swarmers which starts to operate in every cell after a defined number of cell cleavages. The probability that the program will be executed appeared to be affected by the presence of other cells. In other words, a high density of cells suppressed the expression of the program. Suppression was achieved by resetting the mechanism and was related to the number of cell divisions. Our findings provide one of the simplest examples of a mechanism by which a large population produces individuality in a group of genetically homogeneous organisms. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.