Compartmentation determines the dynamics of multicellular system's growth

The dependance of the growth rate on the geometric dimensions and the compartmentation kinetics were examined for various multicellular systems. Experimental results were obtained for the objects differing in various characteristics, for prokaryotes (cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis) and cukaryotes (Neurospora crassa mycelial fungus strains R-2 and White collar - 1) and mammalian cultured cell lines (Vero and SVK14). The formation of new compartments during growth correlates with the cyclic changes in the specific growth rate for all the objects. The specific character of the mammalian cell monolayer in culture did not allow the formation of new compartments; a decrease in the specific growth rate of these objects was irreversible. It is stated, that the characteristic spatial scales of the electro-diffusive communications determine the dimensions of a compartment of the order of 1 mm. The disruption of the coordination of the cooperative behavior at distances of 1 mm (as identified by the decrease in the specific growth rate) determines the fragmentation of cyanobacterial trichomes, branching of mycelial fungus, and development of the processes, responsible for the contact inhibition of cultured mammalian cell growth.