Dictyostelium discoideum: Cell Culture and Molecular Tools

Abstract

Dictyostelium discoideum provides an easy‐to‐grow model system to study virtually all functions typical for higher eukaryotic cells. A variety of specific conditions can induce individual cells to aggregate and initiate a differentiation process resulting in a multicellular structure of low complexity. A plethora of molecular tools is available. These tools include gene disruptions, gene replacements, expression of heterologous proteins, cell type tagging and others, which allow easy genetic manipulation. Dictyostelium discoideum has proven to be suitable for basic research in chemotaxis, cell differentiation, infection biology, signal transduction, cytoskeletal organisation, nuclear architecture, nutrient uptake and metabolism and many other topics. The Dictyostelium Stock Centre provides a large collection of genetically modified strains, mutants and transformation vectors. Genomic sequences, complementary deoxyribonucleic acid sequences, expression profiles throughout development, genomes of related species and other data are accessible on DictyBase, the Dictyostelium website. Key Concepts: D. discoideum is a suitable model organism to study fundamental biological functions like cell motility, chemotaxis, signal transduction and metabolic pathways. The developmental cycle in D. discoideum is easy to induce and results in only a few different cell types, thus providing a simple system to study cell differentiation. Conditions for growth and maintenance of strains are simple. Gene regulation can be studied on various levels as mechanisms like RNAi, miRNA and chromatin remodelling are similar to those in higher eukaryotes. The intermediate position of D. discoideum in the phylogenetic tree provides insights into the plant as well as the animal kingdom. Molecular tools like gene disruption, gene replacement, restriction enzyme‐mediated integration (REMI), expression of tagged genes, RNAi and antisense knockdown are available for D. discoideum . Because D. discoideum is haploid, genetic alterations are easy to perform.