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dictyNews Volume 40 Number 29
dictyNews
Electronic Edition
Volume 40, number 29
November 14, 2014
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
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Abstracts
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Epilepsy Research Methods Update: Understanding the causes of
epileptic seizures and identifying new treatments using
non-mammalian model organisms
Vincent T Cunliffe*, Richard A Baines, Carlo NG Giachello,
Wei-Hsiang Lin, Alan Morgan, Markus Reuber, Claire Russell,
Matthew C Walker, Robin SB Williams
Seizure , in press
This narrative review is intended to introduce clinicians treating
epilepsy and researchers familiar with mammalian models of epilepsy
to experimentally tractable, non-mammalian research models used in
epilepsy research, ranging from unicellular eukaryotes to more
complex multicellular organisms. The review focuses on four model
organisms: the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, the roundworm
Caenorhabditis elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and
the zebrafish Danio rerio. We consider recent discoveries made with
each model organism and discuss the importance of these advances for
the understanding and treatment of epilepsy in humans. The relative
ease with which mutations in genes of interest can be produced and
studied quickly and cheaply in these organisms, together with their
anatomical and physiological simplicity in comparison to mammalian
species, are major advantages when researchers are trying to unravel
complex disease mechanisms. The short generation times of most of
these model organisms also mean that they lend themselves particularly
conveniently to the investigation of drug effects or epileptogenic
processes across the lifecourse.
Submitted by Robin Williams [robin.williams@rhul.ac.uk]
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The ABC Transporter, AbcB3, Mediates cAMP Export In D. discoideum
Development
Edward Roshan Miranda, Edward A. Nam, Adam Kuspa and Gad Shaulsky
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030
Developmental Biology, in press
Extracellular cAMP functions as a primary ligand for cell surface
cAMP receptors throughout Dictyostelium discoideum development,
controlling chemotaxis and morphogenesis. The developmental
consequences of cAMP signaling and the metabolism of cAMP have been
studied in great detail, but it has been unclear how cells export
cAMP across the plasma membrane. Here we show pharmacologically and
genetically that ABC transporters mediate cAMP export. Using an
evolutionary-developmental biology approach, we identified several
candidate abc genes and characterized one of them, abcB3, in more
detail. Genetic and biochemical evidence suggest that AbcB3 is a
component of the cAMP export mechanism in D. discoideum development.
Submitted by Gad Shaulsky [gadi@bcm.edu]
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[End dictyNews, volume 40, number 29]
