Dictyostelium discoideum development

Li G, Foote C, Alexander S, Alexander H (2001) Sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase has a central role in the development of Dictyostelium discoideum. Development 128 3473-3483... 

Fig. 5.1 Multicellular stages of Dictyostelium discoideum development, as isolated in 1933 from decaying leaves in a forest in North Carolina (photographs by K. B. Raper) [4]. (A) Aggregation center (B) pseudoplasmodium transforming from mound stage to a migrating slug (C, D) migrating slugs ...

Dictyostelium discoideum (gene MHCK A [2,14,18] strain JHIO [18] strain Ax-3 [5] two heavy chain kinases one in growth-phase cells and one in starved, developing cells [2,3] isozyme myosin II heavy chain kinase A [5,18]) [1-3, 5, 14, 18]... 

In the slime mould, Dictyostelium discoideum, a STAT-like DNA-binding protein, DIF (the differentiation-inducing factor), is expressed. DIF is about 700 amino-acid residues long, and has substantial homology with mammalian STATs. DIF is, like STAT, activated by phosphorylation of tyrosines. It is essential for differentiation of the stalk cells of D. discoideum A The long evolutionary path that the STATs have travelled from Dictyostelium to mammals underlines their conserved and essential role as signal transmitters and transcriptional activators in early development. 

G. Mangiarotti, S. Bozzaro, S. Landfear, and H.F. Lodish. 1983. Cell-cell contact, cyclic AMP, and gene expression during development of Dictyostelium discoideum Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 18 117-154. (PubMed)... 

Fig. 5. Comparison of conserved and novel sequences of cysteine proteinases in Dictyostelium discoideum. Sequences of four Dictyostelium cysteine proteases and others from mammals and plants deduced from their cDNAs are shown. CPI and CP2 are found only during development. CP4 and CP5 are produced only during vegetative growth and disappear with the onset of development. All of them show the highly conserved (boxed areas) and non-conserved regions (dashed lines) typical of all eukaryotic cysteine proteases. The arrowheads show the conserved active site Cys and His residues. Potential A-glycosylation sites are double underlined.

Biological rhythms occur only under precise conditions, and variations in a control parameter can bring about their disappearance. In a symmetrical manner, the variation of such a parameter can lead to the appearance of a rhythm in the course of development. There is no example as yet where the molecular basis of the ontogenesis of a biological rhythm is known in detail. The rhythm of intercellular communication in the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum provides us with a prototype for the study of this question. 

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Faix, J., Dittrich, W., Brassier, J., Westphal, M., and Gerisch, G. (1995) pDcsA vectors for strictly regulated synthesis during early development of Dictyostelium discoideum. Plasmid 34,148-151... 

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