scholarly journals The past, present and future of Dictyostelium as a model system

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (8-9-10) ◽  
pp. 321-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Bozzaro
Keyword(s):  
Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Human Genes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Microbial Infections ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Soil Amoeba

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum has been a preferred model organism during the last 50 years, particularly for the study of cell motility and chemotaxis, phagocytosis and macropinocytosis, intercellular adhesion, pattern formation, caspase-independent cell death and more recently autophagy and social evolution. Being a soil amoeba and professional phagocyte, thus exposed to a variety of potential pathogens, D. discoideum has also proven to be a powerful genetic and cellular model for investigating host-pathogen interactions and microbial infections. The finding that the Dictyostelium genome harbours several homologs of human genes responsible for a variety of diseases has stimulated their analysis, providing new insights into the mechanism of action of the encoded proteins and in some cases into the defect underlying the disease. Recent technological developments have covered the genetic gap between mammals and non-mammalian model organisms, challenging the modelling role of the latter. Is there a future for Dictyostelium discoideum as a model organism?

scholarly journals Calcium Signaling in Vertebrate Development and Its Role in Disease

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudip Paudel ◽  
Regan Sindelar ◽  
Margaret Saha
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Signaling ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Vertebrate Development ◽  
Developmental Defects ◽  
Calcium Activity ◽  
Human Genes ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Accumulating evidence over the past three decades suggests that altered calcium signaling during development may be a major driving force for adult pathophysiological events. Well over a hundred human genes encode proteins that are specifically dedicated to calcium homeostasis and calcium signaling, and the majority of these are expressed during embryonic development. Recent advances in molecular techniques have identified impaired calcium signaling during development due to either mutations or dysregulation of these proteins. This impaired signaling has been implicated in various human diseases ranging from cardiac malformations to epilepsy. Although the molecular basis of these and other diseases have been well studied in adult systems, the potential developmental origins of such diseases are less well characterized. In this review, we will discuss the recent evidence that examines different patterns of calcium activity during early development, as well as potential medical conditions associated with its dysregulation. Studies performed using various model organisms, including zebrafish, Xenopus, and mouse, have underscored the critical role of calcium activity in infertility, abortive pregnancy, developmental defects, and a range of diseases which manifest later in life. Understanding the underlying mechanisms by which calcium regulates these diverse developmental processes remains a challenge; however, this knowledge will potentially enable calcium signaling to be used as a therapeutic target in regenerative and personalized medicine.

scholarly journals Microbe Profile: Dictyostelium discoideum: model system for development, chemotaxis and biomedical research

Microbiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Pears ◽  
Julian D. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Formation ◽  
Cell Motility ◽  
Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Model System ◽  
Developmental Pattern ◽  
Social Amoeba ◽  
The Social ◽  
Host Pathogen ◽  
Soil Amoeba

The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a versatile organism that is unusual in alternating between single-celled and multi-celled forms. It possesses highly-developed systems for cell motility and chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and developmental pattern formation. As a soil amoeba growing on microorganisms, it is exposed to many potential pathogens; it thus provides fruitful ways of investigating host-pathogen interactions and is emerging as an influential model for biomedical research.

scholarly journals Role of epigenetics in unicellular to multicellular transition in Dictyostelium

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Yuan Wang ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Pollina ◽  
I-Hao Wang ◽  
Lindsay Kristina Pino ◽  
Henry L. Bushnell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Orthologous Gene ◽  
Chromatin Accessibility ◽  
Critical Event ◽  
H3k4 Methylation ◽  
Social Amoeba ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conserved Genes ◽  
Multicellular Organisms

Abstract Background The evolution of multicellularity is a critical event that remains incompletely understood. We use the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, one of the rare organisms that readily transits back and forth between both unicellular and multicellular stages, to examine the role of epigenetics in regulating multicellularity. Results While transitioning to multicellular states, patterns of H3K4 methylation and H3K27 acetylation significantly change. By combining transcriptomics, epigenomics, chromatin accessibility, and orthologous gene analyses with other unicellular and multicellular organisms, we identify 52 conserved genes, which are specifically accessible and expressed during multicellular states. We validated that four of these genes, including the H3K27 deacetylase hdaD, are necessary and that an SMC-like gene, smcl1, is sufficient for multicellularity in Dictyostelium. Conclusions These results highlight the importance of epigenetics in reorganizing chromatin architecture to facilitate multicellularity in Dictyostelium discoideum and raise exciting possibilities about the role of epigenetics in the evolution of multicellularity more broadly.

scholarly journals “What You Need, Baby, I Got It”: Transposable Elements as Suppliers of Cis-Operating Sequences in Drosophila

Biology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Moschetti ◽  
Antonio Palazzo ◽  
Patrizio Lorusso ◽  
Luigi Viggiano ◽  
René Massimiliano Marsano
Keyword(s):  
Transposable Elements ◽  
Transcriptional Control ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Regulatory Sequences ◽  
Transcriptional Pattern ◽  
Constitutive Components ◽  
Host Genes

Transposable elements (TEs) are constitutive components of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. The role of TEs in the evolution of genes and genomes has been widely assessed over the past years in a variety of model and non-model organisms. Drosophila is undoubtedly among the most powerful model organisms used for the purpose of studying the role of transposons and their effects on the stability and evolution of genes and genomes. Besides their most intuitive role as insertional mutagens, TEs can modify the transcriptional pattern of host genes by juxtaposing new cis-regulatory sequences. A key element of TE biology is that they carry transcriptional control elements that fine-tune the transcription of their own genes, but that can also perturb the transcriptional activity of neighboring host genes. From this perspective, the transposition-mediated modulation of gene expression is an important issue for the short-term adaptation of physiological functions to the environmental changes, and for long-term evolutionary changes. Here, we review the current literature concerning the regulatory and structural elements operating in cis provided by TEs in Drosophila. Furthermore, we highlight that, besides their influence on both TEs and host genes expression, they can affect the chromatin structure and epigenetic status as well as both the chromosome’s structure and stability. It emerges that Drosophila is a good model organism to study the effect of TE-linked regulatory sequences, and it could help future studies on TE–host interactions in any complex eukaryotic genome.

scholarly journals Dictyostelium discoideum and autophagy – a perfect pair

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (8-9-10) ◽  
pp. 485-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Fischer ◽  
Ludwig Eichinger
Keyword(s):  
Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Membrane Vesicles ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
Protein Assemblies ◽  
Large Protein ◽  
Complex Dynamic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Molecular Machinery ◽  
Chaperone Mediated Autophagy

Autophagy is subdivided into chaperone-mediated autophagy, microautophagy and macroautophagy and is a highly conserved intracellular degradative pathway. It is crucial for cellular homeostasis and also serves as a response to different stresses. Here we focus on macroautophagy, which targets damaged organelles and large protein assemblies, as well as pathogenic intracellular microbes for destruction. During this process, cytosolic material becomes enclosed in newly generated double-membrane vesicles, the so-called autophagosomes. Upon maturation, the autophagosome fuses with the lysosome for degradation of the cargo. The basic molecular machinery that controls macroautophagy works in a sequential order and consists of the ATG1 complex, the PtdIns3K complex, the membrane delivery system, two ubiquitin-like conjugation systems, and autophagy adaptors and receptors. Since the different stages of macroautophagy from initiation to final degradation of cargo are tightly regulated and highly conserved across eukaryotes, simple model organisms in combination with a wide range of techniques contributed significantly to advance our understanding of this complex dynamic process. Here, we present the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum as an advantageous and relevant experimental model system for the analysis of macroautophagy.

scholarly journals The competitive advantage of institutional reward

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1899) ◽  
pp. 20190001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yali Dong ◽  
Tatsuya Sasaki ◽  
Boyu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Group Fitness ◽  
Cooperation Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stable Equilibria ◽  
Decision Errors ◽  
Reward And Punishment

Sustaining cooperation among unrelated individuals is a fundamental challenge in biology and the social sciences. In human society, this problem can be solved by establishing incentive institutions that reward cooperators and punish free-riders. Most of the previous studies have focused on which incentives promote cooperation best. However, a higher cooperation level does not always imply higher group fitness, and only incentives that lead to higher fitness can survive in social evolution. In this paper, we compare the efficiencies of three types of institutional incentives, namely, reward, punishment, and a mixture of reward and punishment, by analysing the group fitness at the stable equilibria of evolutionary dynamics. We find that the optimal institutional incentive is sensitive to decision errors. When there is no error, a mixture of reward and punishment can lead to high levels of cooperation and fitness. However, for intermediate and large errors, reward performs best, and one should avoid punishment. The failure of punishment is caused by two reasons. First, punishment cannot maintain a high cooperation level. Second, punishing defectors almost always reduces the group fitness. Our findings highlight the role of reward in human cooperation. In an uncertain world, the institutional reward is not only effective but also efficient.

The influence of beliefs on organ donation intention

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jandir Pauli ◽  
Kenny Basso ◽  
Juliane Ruffatto
Keyword(s):  
Organ Donation ◽  
Financial Incentive ◽  
Organ Transplant ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Donation Intention

Purpose Recent technological developments in healthcare have enabled an increased number of organ transplantation surgeries. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of people awaiting organ transplant, coupled with the difficulty in donation. To bridge this gap, this study aims to propose to evaluate the effect of three types of beliefs (clinical beliefs, financial incentive beliefs and beliefs on the social benefits of altruism and solidarity) on the intention to donate organs. Moreover, this paper uses the attitudes in relation to donation to explain the effect of these beliefs on the intention to donate organs. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted using a survey of 422 Brazilian participants and a mediation analysis to test the mediation hypotheses. Findings The results suggest that the effect of three types of beliefs (clinical, economic order and social solidarity) influence the intention to donate organs indirectly through the formation of attitudes concerning organ donation. Research limitations/implications This article contributes to the understanding of the formation of organ donation intentions and the role of different types of beliefs in the formation of such intentions. Originality/value The findings extend the discussions regarding the role of beliefs in the formation of attitudes and intentions of organ donation and have significant value in creating public policies that further promote organ donation.

scholarly journals Dissecting ant recognition systems in the age of genomics

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 20130416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil D. Tsutsui
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Kin Recognition ◽  
Genome Sequences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Colony Recognition ◽  
Recognition Systems

Hamilton is probably best known for his seminal work demonstrating the role of kin selection in social evolution. His work made it clear that, for individuals to direct their altruistic behaviours towards appropriate recipients (kin), mechanisms must exist for kin recognition. In the social insects, colonies are typically comprised of kin, and colony recognition cues are used as proxies for kinship cues. Recent years have brought rapid advances in our understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms that are used for this process. Here, I review some of the most notable advances, particularly the contributions from recent ant genome sequences and molecular biology.

scholarly journals A RESPONSABILIDADE SOCIAL DA EMPRESA E A CIDADANIA NA PARTICIPAÇÃO DEMOCRÁTICA

Percurso ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (29) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Leandro Souza ROSA
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Democratic Participation ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
The Social

RESUMOEste artigo analisa a responsabilidade social e ética da empresa, que não se limita a gerar empregos e pagar impostos para criar o lucro, mas também participa ativamente da sociedade, já que o Estado possui uma demanda maior do que consegue suprir e as empresas podem desempenhar o papel de agentes de grandes transformações na vida dos indivíduos. Para tanto, examinou-se a concepção da função social no Estado Democrático de Direito, bem como o instituto da responsabilidade social, cujas diretrizes baseiam-se na cidadania por meio da participação democrática, de modo que o modelo que melhor se enquadraria nesse sistema é o da democracia deliberativa, conforme se demonstra. Assim, por meio de exemplos concretos, buscou-se demonstrar que a empresa pode desenvolver a participação democrática para se envolver no processo decisório e fomentar a evolução social. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Empresa; Responsabilidade Social; Cidadania; Democracia. ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the social and ethical responsibility of the company, which not only generates jobs and pay taxes to create profit, but also actively participates in society, since the State has a greater demand than it can supply and companies can play the role of agents of great transformations in the life of individuals. For this, the conception of the social function in the Democratic State of Law, as well as the institute of social responsibility, whose guidelines are based on citizenship through democratic participation, was examined, so that the model that would fit best in this system is that of deliberative democracy, as demonstrated. Thus, through concrete examples, it was tried to demonstrate that the company can develop the democratic participation to be involved in the decision-making process and to foment the social evolution. KEYWORDS: Company; Social Responsibility; Citizenship; Democracy.

scholarly journals Mitochondrial regulation in Dictyostelium discoideum

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehak Rafiq
Keyword(s):  
Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Serine Proteases ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Complex Life Cycle ◽  
Transcriptional Networks ◽  
Multicellular Development ◽  
Mitochondrial Regulation ◽  
Rhomboid Proteases ◽  
The Social ◽  
Membrane Bound

Proteolysis is increasingly documented as a method of regulation of mitochondrial function. Our studies of rhomboidfamily proteins’ roles in organelles show that this is also the case in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, in which four of these membrane-bound, evolutionarily ubiquitous, serine proteases are found. Rhomboid proteases act on disparate substrates in different organisms so far studied, but their mode of action is conserved: their location in the membrane means that their membrane-tethered substrates can act in signalling upon release, or be activated, by rhomboid-mediated cleavage. Among eukaryotic rhomboids is the mitochondrial protease ‘PARL’, which ensures the maintenance of the structural and functional integrity of mitochondria and plastids, but we have found that other Dictyostelium rhomboids also affect the organelle. Studying the development and behaviour of Dictyostelium, a microbial model organism with a complex life cycle that includes uni- and multicellular stages, allowed investigation of the role of rhomboids in unicellular vegetative growth, multicellular development and sporulation, phagocytosis, and response to the environment. We found that two rhomboid-null mutants gave rise to changes in development, rhmA altering the response to chemoattractants and demonstrating decreased motility in general, whereas rhmB null cells had slower growth rates with decreased response to folic acid. RhmA, although located in the contractile vacuole, affects the ultrastructure of mitochondria, and RhmB-GFP fusions protein was localised to the mitochondrion. qPCR analysis revealed RhmA and RhmB transcript levels peaking during the multicellular growth phase and transcriptional networks suggest the Dictyostelium rhmA is regulated along with the orthologues of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial rhomboid substrates.

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