In its natural habitat in the forest soil, the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is exposed to obstacles. Starving Dictyostelium cells secrete cAMP, which is the key extracellular signaling molecule that promotes the aggregation process required for their long-term survival. Here, we investigated the influence of environmental inhomogeneities on the signaling and pattern formation of Dictyostelium cells. We present experimental data and numerical simulations on the pattern formation of signaling Dictyostelium cells in the presence of periodic arrays of millimeter-sized pillars. We observed concentric cAMP waves that initiated almost synchronously at the pillars and propagated outward. In response to these circular waves, the Dictyostelium cells streamed toward the pillars, forming aggregates arranged in patterns that reflected the periodicity of the lattice of pillars. Our results suggest that, in nature, the excitability threshold and synchronization level of the cells are two key parameters that control the nature of the interaction between cells and spatial heterogeneities in their environment.

在森林土壤中的自然栖息地中，细胞粘菌盘基网柄菌暴露于障碍物。饥饿的网基网柄菌细胞会分泌 cAMP，这是一种关键的细胞外信号分子，可促进其长期存活所需的聚集过程。在这里，我们研究了环境不均匀性对网基网柄菌细胞的信号传导和模式形成的影响。我们提供了关于信号网柄菌的模式形成的实验数据和数值模拟在存在毫米大小的柱子的周期性阵列的情况下的细胞。我们观察到同心 cAMP 波在柱子上几乎同步启动并向外传播。作为对这些圆形波的响应，网柄细胞向柱子流动，形成以反映柱子晶格周期性的图案排列的聚集体。我们的结果表明，在自然界中，细胞的兴奋性阈值和同步水平是控制细胞之间相互作用的性质及其环境空间异质性的两个关键参数。