Crawling into a new era-the Dictyostelium genome project.
The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a well-established model organism for the study of basic aspects of differentiation, signal transduction, phagocytosis, cytokinesis and cell motility. Its genome is being sequenced by an international consortium using a whole chromosome shotgun approach. The pacemaker of the D.discoideum genome project has been chromosome 2, the largest chromosome, which at 8 Mb represents approximately 25% of the genome and whose sequence and analysis have been published recently. Chromosomes 1 and 6 are close to being finished. To accelerate completion of the genome sequence, the next step in the project will be a whole-genome assembly followed by the analysis of the complete gene content. The completed genome sequence and its analysis provide the basis for genome-wide functional studies. It will position Dictyostelium at the same level as other model organisms and further enhance its experimental attractiveness.
Eichinger
Ludwig
L
Center for Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Joseph-Stelzmann-Strasse 52, D-50931 Köln, Germany.
Noegel
Angelika A
AA
D000818:Animals; D002875:Chromosomes; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome; D010802:Phylogeny