Genome analysis of social amoebae

Abstract

Genomics is now an indispensible part of the biological sciences. Today a species description without genome information is incomplete. This chapter describes the current knowledge on the genome of the model species Dictyostelium discoideum. A comparison with other social amoebae genomes covering the whole breadth of this branch of evolution carves out driving forces of speciation and the common toolkit of all social amoebae. The vast evolutionary distance within this branch makes ortholog detection difficult. While the coding capacity of all social amoebae is largely conserved, species specific gene family expansions of proteins for environmental sensing, signaling, and secondary metabolites provide for diversification. The sequences of the functional chromosomal elements (telomeres and centromeres) are not conserved, rather they seem to have underwent severe modifications. Nucleosome patterns link the social amoebae to other, more sophisticated multicellular systems. Comparative curated databases make this wealth of genome information accessible and play an important role for the dissemination of the knowledge on this evolutionary branch.