Ras proteins signaling in the early metazoan Dictyostelium discoideum.
Since the discovery of Ras, Ras-mediated transforming activity has been the major investigative area of interest. Soon thereafter it has emerged that Ras family members regulate different biological processes, other than cell growth, like development and fine-tune the balance between cell death and survival. The lower metazoan Dictyostelium discoideum is a powerful and genetically accessible model organism that has been used to elucidate the roles played by different Ras members in some biological processes, such as cell motility and development. In the following chapter we describe some very basic techniques aiming to identify novel Ras signaling components, throughout insertional mutagenesis screening, and to investigate their role(s) in development and chemotaxis processes.
Department of Oncology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
Enrico
E
Bracco
Barbara
B
Pergolizzi
D000262:Adenylyl Cyclases / Q000378:metabolism; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002633:Chemotaxis; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D016296:Mutagenesis / Q000187:drug effects; D010641:Phenotype; D015398:Signal Transduction; D018631:ras Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D004247:DNA; D018631:ras Proteins; D000262:Adenylyl Cyclases