Dictyostelium discoideum

Senoo et al. show that, in response to chemoattractant stimulation, phosphorylated Rho–GDP in complex with Ras–GTP and mTORC2 promotes AKT phosphorylation to mediate cell migration.

Hidenori Hashimura et al. show that cAMP-mediated signaling changes from propagating waves to a steady state at a multicellular stage of amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. This study suggests that cAMP oscillation is not required for collective cell migration despite its importance at a unicellular stage.

Development involves dynamic transcriptional changes. By serial ChIP- and RNA-sequencing, here, the authors show that GtaC, a GATA type transcription factor, exhibits temporally distinctive DNA binding and regulation of gene expression concordant with the development in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum.

It is unclear how variation in cues that enable recognition of kin and facilitate cooperation is maintained. Here, the authors show that rare variants of Dictyostelium discoideumare excluded from aggregates when the potential for social cheating is high, but subsequently rejoin the aggregate and produce spores.

Rab GTPases are important mediators of vesicle trafficking, but how they are regulated is not clear. Thompson and colleagues find that calcium efflux through the ion channel P2XA in the Dictyostelium discoideum contractile vacuole leads to activation of the Rab GTPase-activating protein CnrF, which in turn inactivates Rab11a to allow vacuole fusion.