title: Identification of the homolog of cell-counting factor in the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum.
abstract: Genes for the cell-counting factors in Dictyostelium discoideum, countin and countin2, are considered to control the size of the multicellular structure of this organism. A novel gene, countin3, that is homologous to countin and countin2 genes (49 and 39% identity in amino acid sequence, respectively) was identified in the D. discoideum genome. The expression of countin3 was observed in the vegetatively growing cells, decreased in the aggregating stage, increased in the mid-developmental stage and decreased again in subsequent stages. This expression pattern is different from that of countin and countin2. The distinct expression kinetics of three genes suggests that they would have unique roles in size control of D. discoideum.
authors.affiliation: Division of Bioengineering, Faculty of Egineering, Toyama University, Toyama 930-8555, Japan. hiro@eng.toyama-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Takako
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okuwa
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: Akinori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Hiroo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yasukawa
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D015800:Protozoan Proteins; C120918:countin protein, Dictyostelium discoideum