Premium
Small GTPase RacF2 affects sexual cell fusion and asexual development in Dictyostelium discoideum through the regulation of cell adhesion
Author(s) -
Muramoto Tetsuya,
Urushihara Hideko
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
development, growth and differentiation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.864
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1440-169X
pISSN - 0012-1592
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-169x.2006.00857.x
Subject(s) - dictyostelium discoideum , microbiology and biotechnology , cell fusion , small gtpase , biology , cell adhesion , adhesion , gtpase , mycetozoa , cell , chemistry , genetics , signal transduction , gene , organic chemistry
Cells of Dictyostelium discoideum become sexually mature when submerged and in darkness, and fuse with opposite mating‐type cells as gametes. The gene for a Rho GTPase, RacF2 , is one of the extremely gamete‐enriched genes (>100‐fold) identified by us previously. Here, we isolated knockout, overexpression, constitutively active and dominant negative mutants of RacF2 , and analyzed their phenotypes. These mutants showed anomalies in the extent of sexual cell fusion and asexual development as well as in EDTA‐sensitive cell–cell adhesion. It is suggested that RacF2 controls the process of sexual and asexual development through the regulation of cellular adhesiveness. An analysis of the expression of all 18 rac family genes by real‐time polymerase chain reaction revealed that four additional genes, rac1b, rac1c, racF1 and racG , were induced during maturation, suggesting their possible involvement in sexual cell interactions.