dictyNews
Electronic Edition
Volume 39, number 17
June 14, 2013

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Abstracts
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ABC transporters in Dictyostelium discoideum development

E.R. Miranda, O. Zhuchenko, M. Toplak, B. Santhanam, B. Zupan, 
A. Kuspa and G. Shaulsky

Baylor College of Medicine and University of Ljubljana


PLoS One, Accepted

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can translocate a broad 
spectrum of molecules across the cell membrane including physiological 
cargo and toxins. ABC transporters are known for the role they play in 
resistance towards anticancer agents in chemotherapy of cancer patients. 
There are 68 ABC transporters annotated in the genome of the social 
amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. We have characterized more than 
half of these ABC transporters through a systematic study of mutations in 
their genes. We have analyzed morphological and transcriptional 
phenotypes for these mutants during growth and development and found 
that most of the mutants exhibited rather subtle phenotypes. A few of the 
genes may share physiological functions, as reflected in their transcriptional 
phenotypes. Since most of the abc transporter mutants showed subtle 
morphological phenotypes, we utilized these transcriptional phenotypes to 
identify genes that are important for development by looking for transcripts 
whose abundance was  unperturbed in most of the mutants. We found a 
set of 668 genes that includes many validated D. discoideum developmental 
genes. We have also found that abcG6 and abcG18 may have potential 
roles in intercellular signaling during terminal differentiation of spores and 
stalks.

 
Submitted by Gad Shaulsky [[log in to unmask]]
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[End dictyNews, volume 39, number 17]