Autophagy inDictyostelium: Mechanisms, regulation and disease in a simple biomedical model

Abstract

Autophagy is a fast-moving field with an enormous impact on human health and disease. Understanding the complexity of the mechanism and regulation of this process often benefits from the use of simple experimental models such as the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Since the publication of the first review describing the potential of D. discoideum in autophagy, significant advances have been made that demonstrate both the experimental advantages and interest in using this model. Since our previous review, research in D. discoideum has shed light on the mechanisms that regulate autophagosome formation and contributed significantly to the study of autophagy-related pathologies. Here, we review these advances, as well as the current techniques to monitor autophagy in D. discoideum. The comprehensive bioinformatics search of autophagic proteins that was a substantial part of the previous review has not been revisited here except for those aspects that challenged previous predictions such as the composition of the Atg1 complex. In recent years our understanding of, and ability to investigate, autophagy in D. discoideum has evolved significantly and will surely enable and accelerate future research using this model.

Calmodulin‐mediated events during the life cycle of the amoebozoan Dictyostelium discoideum

“…TipC, TipD) (Muñoz‐Braceras, Calvo, & Escalante, ). The nature of this phenotype also suggests that autophagic machinery is involved in the differentiation of cell types (Mesquita et al, ).…”

Yeast and other lower eukaryotic organisms for studies of Vps13 proteins in health and disease

“…Other models, such as the social amoeba D. discoideum can complement the studies performed in yeast. In several aspects, this organism is more similar to animal cells than to fungi for processes such as phagocytosis, cell motility, development and the lysosomal and autophagic pathways . The presence of 6 different Vps13 genes in D. discoideum , and the apparently non‐similar phenotypes associated with their mutations suggest that there may have been a specialization of functions similar to that seen in humans.…”

Dictyostelium discoideum and autophagy – a perfect pair

“…S. cerevisiae and plants, e.g. Arabidopsis thaliana, to name just a few (Galluzzi et al, 2017, Lv et al, 2014, Mesquita et al, 2017. Another of the well-established model organisms is the soil-living amoeba D. discoideum and in recent years, a large number of methods to monitor and quantify autophagy in this organism have been developed (Calvo-Garrido et al, 2010, Domínguez-Martín et al, 2017, Klionsky et al, 2016.…”