Dataset Information

Autophagy in Dictyostelium: Mechanisms, regulation and disease in a simple biomedical model.

ABSTRACT: Autophagy is a fast-moving field with an enormous impact on human health and disease. Understanding the complexity of the mechanism and regulation of this process often benefits from the use of simple experimental models such as the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Since the publication of the first review describing the potential of D. discoideum in autophagy, significant advances have been made that demonstrate both the experimental advantages and interest in using this model. Since our previous review, research in D. discoideum has shed light on the mechanisms that regulate autophagosome formation and contributed significantly to the study of autophagy-related pathologies. Here, we review these advances, as well as the current techniques to monitor autophagy in D. discoideum. The comprehensive bioinformatics search of autophagic proteins that was a substantial part of the previous review has not been revisited here except for those aspects that challenged previous predictions such as the composition of the Atg1 complex. In recent years our understanding of, and ability to investigate, autophagy in D. discoideum has evolved significantly and will surely enable and accelerate future research using this model.

SUBMITTER: Mesquita A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5240833 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Autophagy in Dictyostelium: Mechanisms, regulation and disease in a simple biomedical model.

Mesquita Ana A Cardenal-Muñoz Elena E Dominguez Eunice E Muñoz-Braceras Sandra S Nuñez-Corcuera Beatriz B Phillips Ben A BA Tábara Luis C LC Xiong Qiuhong Q Coria Roberto R Eichinger Ludwig L Golstein Pierre P King Jason S JS Soldati Thierry T Vincent Olivier O Escalante Ricardo R

Autophagy 20161007 1

Autophagy is a fast-moving field with an enormous impact on human health and disease. Understanding the complexity of the mechanism and regulation of this process often benefits from the use of simple experimental models such as the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Since the publication of the first review describing the potential of D. discoideum in autophagy, significant advances have been made that demonstrate both the experimental advantages and interest in using this model. Since our ...[more]

PMID: 27715405

Similar Datasets

Project description:Mutations in CLN5 cause a subtype of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) called CLN5 disease. While the precise role of CLN5 in NCL pathogenesis is not known, recent work revealed that the protein has glycoside hydrolase activity. Previous work on the Dictyostelium discoideum homolog of human CLN5, Cln5, revealed its secretion during the early stages of development and its role in regulating cell adhesion and cAMP-mediated chemotaxis. Here, we used Dictyostelium to examine the effect of cln5-deficiency on various growth and developmental processes during the life cycle. During growth, cln5 - cells displayed reduced cell proliferation, cytokinesis, viability, and folic acid-mediated chemotaxis. In addition, the growth of cln5 - cells was severely impaired in nutrient-limiting media. Based on these findings, we assessed autophagic flux in growth-phase cells and observed that loss of cln5 increased the number of autophagosomes suggesting that the basal level of autophagy was increased in cln5 - cells. Similarly, loss of cln5 increased the amounts of ubiquitin-positive proteins. During the early stages of multicellular development, the aggregation of cln5 - cells was delayed and loss of the autophagy genes, atg1 and atg9, reduced the extracellular amount of Cln5. We also observed an increased amount of intracellular Cln5 in cells lacking the Dictyostelium homolog of the human glycoside hydrolase, hexosaminidase A (HEXA), further supporting the glycoside hydrolase activity of Cln5. This observation was also supported by our finding that CLN5 and HEXA expression are highly correlated in human tissues. Following mound formation, cln5 - development was precocious and loss of cln5 affected spore morphology, germination, and viability. When cln5 - cells were developed in the presence of the autophagy inhibitor ammonium chloride, the formation of multicellular structures was impaired, and the size of cln5 - slugs was reduced relative to WT slugs. These results, coupled with the aberrant autophagic flux observed in cln5 - cells during growth, support a role for Cln5 in autophagy during the Dictyostelium life cycle. In total, this study highlights the multifaceted role of Cln5 in Dictyostelium and provides insight into the pathological mechanisms that may underlie CLN5 disease.

Project description:BackgroundAlthough scientific innovation has been a long-standing topic of interest for historians, philosophers and cognitive scientists, few studies in biomedical research have examined from researchers' perspectives how high impact publications are developed and why they are consistently produced by a small group of researchers. Our objective was therefore to interview a group of researchers with a track record of high impact publications to explore what mechanism they believe contribute to the generation of high impact publications.Methodology/principal findingsResearchers were located in universities all over the globe and interviews were conducted by phone. All interviews were transcribed using standard qualitative methods. A Grounded Theory approach was used to code each transcript, later aggregating concept and categories into overarching explanation model. The model was then translated into a System Dynamics mathematical model to represent its structure and behavior. Five emerging themes were found in our study. First, researchers used heuristics or rules of thumb that came naturally to them. Second, these heuristics were reinforced by positive feedback from their peers and mentors. Third, good communication skills allowed researchers to provide feedback to their peers, thus closing a positive feedback loop. Fourth, researchers exhibited a number of psychological attributes such as curiosity or open-mindedness that constantly motivated them, even when faced with discouraging situations. Fifth, the system is dominated by randomness and serendipity and is far from a linear and predictable environment. Some researchers, however, took advantage of this randomness by incorporating mechanisms that would allow them to benefit from random findings. The aggregation of these themes into a policy model represented the overall expected behavior of publications and their impact achieved by high impact researchers.ConclusionsThe proposed selection mechanism provides insights that can be translated into research coaching programs as well as research policy models to optimize the introduction of high impact research at a broad scale among institutional and governmental agencies.

Dataset Information

Autophagy in Dictyostelium: Mechanisms, regulation and disease in a simple biomedical model.

Publications

Autophagy in Dictyostelium: Mechanisms, regulation and disease in a simple biomedical model.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets