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dictyNews Volume 27 Number 13
dictyNews
Electronic Edition
Volume 27, number 13
November 10, 2006
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 dictyNews, the Dicty Reference database and other
useful information is available at dictyBase - http://dictybase.org.
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Abstracts
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What can microbial genetics teach sociobiology?
Kevin R. Foster1, Katie Parkinson2 and Christopher R. L. Thompson2
1. Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Bauer Laboratory, 7
Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
2. Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith
Building, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK
Correspondence to Kevin (kfoster@cgr.harvard.edu) or
Chris (christopher.thompson@manchester.ac.uk)
Trends in Genetics,in press
The progress made in understanding sociobiology has occurred with little
knowledge of the genetic mechanisms that underlie social traits. However,
several recent studies have described microbial genes that affect social
traits Ð bringing genetics to sociobiology. These studies confirm some key
theories in social evolution, including the importance of genetic
relatedness in cooperation as illustrated by cheater and social recognition
genes. Furthermore, microbial genetics provides an important new
perspective: the genome-to-phenome mapping of social organisms might be
organized to constrain the evolution of social cheaters. This can occur
both through pleiotropic genes that link cheating to a personal cost, and
through the existence of phoenix genes that rescue cooperative systems
from selfish and destructive strategies. These new insights demonstrate
the power of studying microbes to understand the evolution of cooperation.
Submitted by: Chris Thompson [christopher.thompson@man.ac.uk]
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A new environmentally resistant cell type from Dictyostelium
Ioannis Serafimidis, Gareth Bloomfield, Jason Skelton1, Al Ivens1 and
Robert R. Kay
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology,
Hills Rd,
Cambridge, CB2 2QH, UK
1. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute,
Hinxton, Cambridgeshire CB10 1SA, UK
We describe the serendipitous discovery and first characterization of a new
resistant cell type from Dictyostelium, which we propose to call the
aspidocyte (aspida: Greek for shield). These cells are induced from amoebae
by a range of toxins including heavy metals and antibiotics, and were first
detected by their striking resistance to detergent lysis. Aspidocytes are
separate, rounded or irregular shaped cells that are immotile but remain
fully viable; once the toxic stress is removed, they revert to amoeboid
cells within an hour. Induction takes a few hours and is completely blocked
by the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide. Aspidocytes lack a cell
wall and their resistance to detergent lysis is active, requiring continued
energy metabolism, and may be assisted by a complete cessation of
endocytosis, as measured by uptake of the dye FM1-43. Microarray analysis
shows that aspidocytes have a distinct pattern of gene expression with a
number of genes up-regulated that are predicted to be involved in lipid
metabolism. Aspidocytes were initially detected in a hypersensitive mutant,
in which the AMP deaminase gene is disrupted, suggesting that the inductive
pathway involves AMP levels or metabolism. Since aspidocytes can also be
induced from wild-type cells and are much more resistant than amoebae to a
membrane disrupting antibiotic, it is possible that they are an adaptation
allowing Dictyostelium cells to survive a sudden onslaught of toxins in the
wild.
Submitted by: Rob Kay [rrk@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk]
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[End dictyNews, volume 27, number 13]
