BMC Biology (Oct 2018)

Open questions: knowing who’s who in multicellular animals is not always as simple as we imagine

  • Robin A. Weiss

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-018-0582-8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 1
pp. 1 – 3

Abstract

Read online

Abstract The ability of certain tumor cells of mammals and molluscs to spread from the original host to others reopens the question of distinguishing self from non-self. It is part of a wider phenomenon of cellular parasitism and cell chimerism including germ cells.