title: Under-agarose chemotaxis of Dictyostelium discoideum.
abstract: In the vegetative state, Dictyostelium amoebae are chemotactic toward pterins released by bacteria, whereas during multicellular development, they become chemotactic to endogenously produced cAMP. A variety of assays have been used to visualize and quantify chemotactic movement. Under-agarose chemotaxis provides a simple and flexible assay that permits high-resolution imaging and quantification of the motility behavior of individual cells and populations by both transmitted light and fluorescence microscopy. The assay requires cells to deform a solid but flexible matrix; therefore, it also provides a way to measure defects in the ability of mutant cells to move in these restrictive conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Woznica
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Knecht
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000494:pharmacology; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000502:physiology*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D012685:Sepharose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D012685:Sepharose; D000242:Cyclic AMP