Multi-omics analysis of aggregative multicellularity

The extent to which mRNA and protein levels correlate is still not fully known, especially during development, when cells undergo a major transition in gene expression. One organism with particular development is Dictyostelium discoideum, during which it transitions from free-living unicellular to multicellular. Previously the transcriptome has been thoroughly studied during multicellular development, however the proteome and its correlation to the transcriptome during this transition is not fully understood. We present paired transcriptomics and proteomics performed in a time series during aggregative multicellularity. From the analysis, the majority of transcripts were identified as differentially expressed, and we could quantify roughly a third of the proteome during early multicellular development. The proteome and transcriptome correlate relatively highly during steady-state, however this decreases as soon as multicellular aggregation is initiated. Correlation is particularly low at the gene-level during development. We find that dynamically regulated mRNA often leads to linear up- or downregulation of the protein, and that there is a time lag of approximately 2 to 4 hours between mRNA and protein. To study the transcriptome during multicelllular aggregation, mRNAseq was performed on D. discoideum AX4 cells undergoing the transition from single cellular to multicellular. Time points were taken every 2h up to 10h.