Description
Humana Press Inc. Dictyostelium Discoideum Protocols by Ludwig Eichinger
Dictyostelium discoideum is a simple but fascinating eukaryotic microorg- ism whose natural habitat is deciduous forest soil and decaying leaves where the amoebae feed on bacteria and grow as independent single cells. Exhaustion of the bacterial food source triggers a developmental program in which up to 100000 cells aggregate by chemotaxis towards cAMP. Morphogenesis and cell different- tion then culminate in the production of spores enabling the organism to survive unfavorable conditions. Dictyostelium offers unique advantages for studying f- damental cellular processes with the aid of powerful molecular genetic bioche- cal and cell biological tools. These processes include signal transduction chemotaxis cell motility cytokinesis phagocytosis and aspects of development such as cell sorting pattern formation and cell type differentiation. Recently D- tyostelium was also described as a suitable host for pathogenic bacteria in which one can conveniently study the process of infection. In addition Dictyostelium has many of the experimental conveniences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and is pr- ably the best experimentally manipulatable protozoan providing insight into this diverse group of organisms which includes some of the most dangerous human parasites. The recent completion of the Dictyostelium genome sequencing project strengthens the position of D. discoideum as a model organism. The completed genome sequence and other valuable community resources constitute the source for basic biological and biomedical research and for genome-wide analyses.