Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
dictyNews Volume 22 Number 11
Dicty News
Electronic Edition
Volume 22, number 11
May 07, 2004
Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been
accepted for publication by sending them to dicty@northwestern.edu
or by using the form at
http://dictybase.org/db/cgi-bin/dictyBase/abstract_submit.
Back issues of Dicty-News, the Dicty Reference database and other
useful information is available at dictyBase - http://dictybase.org.
=============
Abstracts
=============
Insights into morphogenesis from a simple developmental system.
Rex L. Chisholm1 and Richard A. Firtel2.
1 Cell and Molecular Biology, Center for Genetic Medicine, Feinberg School
of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.
2 Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biological Sciences,
Center for Molecular Genetics, University of California, San Diego,
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0634
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, in press
We are only starting to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie
cell and tissue movements during morphogenesis in metazoans. Dictyostelium
discoideum provides a valuable model system for understanding these events
Ñ as it has for chemotaxis Ñ despite the many differences between this social
amoeba and more complex organisms. Genetic and genomic studies, combined with
real-time imaging, have identified key pathways that regulate morphogenesis
in Dictyostelium and which are likely to have similar roles in metazoans.
Special note to the Dicty Community:
Rex and Rick would like to thank everyone in the Dicty community who helped
with the review by providing invaluable assistance with some of the pathways
(particularly Alan Kimmel and Jeff Williams) and others who provided
information of mutant phenotypes. Note that the table described in the review
is an on-line table containing known Dicty mutants that exhibit morphological
phenotypes. The table not only lists the genes, phenotypes, and gene product,
the table also has a link the the genomic site of that gene in DictyBase with
all of the additional information available in dictyBase. Go to
http://dictybase.org/DdDevelopmentMutants.htm The goal is to continually
update the table so that when someone connects, the information in the table
is as up-to-date as possible. Thus, if you have either a new mutant or if
a gene was left out, please contact dictyBase so the table can be updated.
Rex and Rick hope that this table will not only be useful to the readers of
the review itself but will also be of general help to the Dicty community
and non-Dicty workers interested in how Dicty has illuminated our
understanding of biological processes.
Submitted by: Chisholm Rex [r-chisholm@northwestern.edu]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Structural requirements of dictyopyrones isolated from Dictyostelium spp. in
the regulation of Dictyostelium development and in anti-leukemic activity
Haruhisa Kikuchi, Kazunori Sasaki, Jun'ichi Sekiya, Yasuo Maeda, Aiko Amagai,
Yuzuru Kubohara, and Yoshiteru Oshima
Bioorg. Med. Chem. In press.
Cellular slime molds are fascinating to the field of developmental biology,
and have long been used as excellent model organisms for the study of various
aspects of multicellular development. We have recently isolated a-pyronoids,
named dictyopyrones A-D (1-4), from various species of Dictyostelium cellular
slime molds, and it was shown that compound 3 may regulate Dictyostelium
development. In this study, we synthesized dictyopyrone A-D (1-4) and their
analogues, investigated the physiological role of the molecules in cell growth
and morphogenesis in D. discoideum, and further verified their effects on
human leukemia K562 cells. Nitrogen-containing compounds 22 and 37 strongly
inhibited cell growth in K562 leukemia cells, indicating that these compounds
may be utilized as novel lead compounds for anti-leukemic agents.
Submitted by: Yuzuru Kubohara [kubohara@showa.gunma-u.ac.jp]
===============================================================================
[End Dicty News, volume 22, number 11]
