dictyNews
Electronic Edition
Volume 44, number 21
July 27, 2018
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Abstracts
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Lectins modulate the microbiota of social amoebae
C. Dinh, T. Farinholt, S. Hirose, O. Zhuchenko, and A. Kuspa.
Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Science, in press
Abstract: The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum maintains
a microbiome during multicellular development, carrying bacteria
in migrating slugs and as endosymbionts within amoebae and
spores. Bacterial carriage and endosymbiosis are induced by the
secreted lectin discoidin I that binds bacteria, protects them from
extracellular killing, and alters their retention within amoebae.
This altered handling of bacteria also occurs with bacteria coated
by plants lectins, and leads to DNA transfer from bacteria to
amoebae. Thus, lectins alter D. discoideum’s cellular response
to bacteria to establish their microbiome. Mammalian cells also
maintain intracellular bacteria when presented with bacteria coated
with lectins, so heterologous lectins may induce endosymbiosis in
animals. Our results suggest that endogenous or environmental
lectins may influence microbiome homeostasis across eukaryotic
phylogeny.
submitted by: Adam Kuspa [[log in to unmask]]
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All You Need Is Fats — for Seizure Control: Using Amoeba to
Advance Epilepsy Research
Eleanor C. Warren, Matthew C. Walker, and Robin S.B. Williams
Frontiers In Cellular Neuroscience, in press
Since the original report of seizure control through starvation in
the 1920’s, the ketogenic diet has been considered an energy-
related therapy. The diet was assumed to be functioning through
the effect of reduced carbohydrate intake regulating cellular energy
state, thus giving rise to seizure control. From this assumption, the
generation of ketones during starvation provided an attractive
mechanism for this altered energy state; however, many years of
research has sought and largely failed to correlate seizure control
and ketone levels. Due to this focus on ketones, few studies have
examined a role for free fatty acids, as metabolic intermediates
between the triglycerides provided in the diet and ketones, in
seizure control. Recent discoveries have now suggested that the
medium chain fats, delivered through the medium chain triglyceride
(MCT) ketogenic diet, may provide a key therapeutic mechanism of
the diet in seizure control. Here we describe an unusual pathway l
eading to this discovery, beginning with the use of a tractable non-
animal model - Dictyostelium, through to the demonstration that
medium chain fats play a direct role in seizure control, and finally the
identification of a mechanism of action of these fats and related
congeners leading to reduced neural excitability and seizure control.
submitted by: Robin Williams [[log in to unmask]]
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[End dictyNews, volume 44, number 21]
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