title: A surface glycoprotein indispensable for gamete fusion in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum.
abstract: Sexual reproduction is essential for the maintenance of species in a wide variety of multicellular organisms, and even unicellular organisms that normally proliferate asexually possess a sexual cycle because of its contribution to increased genetic diversity. Information concerning the molecules involved in fertilization is accumulating for many species of the metazoan, plant, and fungal lineages, and the evolutionary consideration of sexual reproduction systems is now an interesting issue. Macrocyst formation in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is a sexual process in which cells become sexually mature under dark and submerged conditions and fuse with complementary mating-type cells. In the present study, we isolated D. discoideum insertional mutants defective in sexual cell fusion and identified the relevant gene, macA, which encodes a highly glycosylated, 2,041-amino-acid membrane protein (MacA). Although its overall similarity is restricted to proteins of unknown function within dictyostelids, it contains LamGL and discoidin domains, which are implicated in cell adhesion. The growth and development of macA-null mutants were indistinguishable from those of the parental strain. The overexpression of macA using the V18 promoter in a macA-null mutant completely restored its sexual defects. Although the macA gene encoded exactly the same protein in a complementary mating-type strain, it was expressed at a much lower level. These results suggest that MacA is indispensable for gamete interactions in D. discoideum, probably via cell adhesion. There is a possibility that it is controlled in a mating-type-dependent manner.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Araki
authors.forename: Hideki D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saeki
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Lixy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sawada
authors.forename: Hideko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Urushihara
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D000070821:Discoidins; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017125:Genes, Protozoan; D006031:Glycosylation; D037102:Lectins / Q000737:chemistry; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional / Q000379:methods; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D012098:Reproduction
chemical_list: D000070821:Discoidins; D037102:Lectins; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins