Chemotaxis: Under agarose assay

Abstract

The unicellular eukaryote Dictyostelium discoideum represents a superb model for examining chemotaxis. Under vegetative conditions, the amoebae are chemotactically responsive to pterins, such as folate. Under starved conditions, they lose their sensitivity to pterins, and become chemotactically responsive to cAMP. As an NIH model system, Dictyostelium offers a variety of advantages in studying chemotaxis, including its conservation of mammalian signaling pathways, its ease of growth, and its genetic tractability. In this chapter, we describe the use of the under agarose chemotaxis assay to identify proteins involved in controlling motility and directional sensing in Dictyostelium discoideum. Given the similarities between Dictyostelium and mammalian cells, this allows us to dissect the conserved pathways involved in eukaryotic chemotaxis.