#dictyostelium

[bpod-bpod]

Cross-cell Traffic

Visualising and analysing in live cells how one of the least-well understood members of the family of lipid molecules called PIPs regulates trafficking across cell membranes

Read the published research paper here

Edvard Munch, painter of the acclaimed image The Scream was born on this day (12th December) in 1863

Adapted video from work by James H. Vines and colleagues

School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Firth Court Western Bank, Sheffield, UK

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Journal of Cell Biology, June 2023

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[mycochaotix]

Slime mould! Super cool organisms with super cool life cycles! This is a life cycle diagram for cellular slime mould, Dictyostelium discoideum. Starvation is a main trigger of the amoebae form of rhe organism leading to ‘slug’ forms that transform into a fruiting body thats a sporangium structure atop a basal disc and thin stalk! The amoeba form comes from the fruiting bodies spore germination!🧠🤯

—-

#protozoa #dictyostelium #dictyosteliumdiscoideum

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[halomancer]

I wanted to argue that slime molds aren’t bugs, but I remembered that this thing

is called a slug.

I must now know your opinion on whether the following organisms are bugs.

Dinocaridids? Hydra? Sponges? Bryozoa? Rotifers and tardigrades are definitely bugs, but are gastrotrichs? Slime molds? I would reckon that flagellated or otherwise motile algae are definitely bugs.

I wonder as well if there is a certain maximum size limit to be a bug. My mind goes to the widest of tarantulas, but I've seen puffball mushrooms bigger than that. What characteristics do you associate with bug-ness?

every thing you mentioned is a bug

[mixelation]

for slowburn/fake date/enemy-to-lovers: team 7, post epilogue

FMK but it's slow burn/fake date/enemies to lovers

Slow burn with Naruto. Maybe by the time we're actually together he'll be Hokage and then he won't have time to talk to me. Ideal. He comes home every night to take out ramen on the kitchen counter and thinks that's love. (Wait I made myself sad.....) Boruto doesn't happen. You're welcome.

Fake date Sasuke. I don't want to DATE Sasuke I just want a beautiful man to follow me around for clout. It's fake so Sasuke doesn't have to give himself indigestion with feelings. I pick the tomatoes off all my food and give them to him. I talk at length about me and all my amoeba buddies coming together to form a slug and he's like "oh that's just normal scientist talk, okay." Later Sasuke tells Orochimaru he'd be part of the Dictyostelium stalk and it emotionally devastates him

Enemies to lovers with Sakura. I just think Sakura is at her sexiest when she's a feral gremlin woman. I need this. For us

[transgenderer]

The culmination of the morphogenesis of the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum involves complex cell movements which transform a mound of cells into a globule of spores on a slender stalk. We show that cyclic AMP signalling and differential adhesion, combined with cell differentiation and slime production, are sufficient to produce the morphogenetic cell movements which lead to culmination. We have simulated the process of culmination using a hybrid cellular automata/partial differential equation model. With our model we have been able to reproduce the main features that occur during culmination, namely the straight downward elongation of the stalk, its anchoring to the substratum and the formation of the long thin stalk topped by the spore head. We conclude that the cyclic AMP signalling system is responsible for the elongation and anchoring of the stalk, but in a roundabout way: pressure waves that are induced by the chemotaxis towards cyclic AMP squeeze the stalk through the cell mass. This mechanism forces the stalk to elongate precisely in the direction opposite to that of the chemotactically moving cells. The process turns out to be 'guided' by inactive 'pathfinder' cells, which form the tip of the stalk. We show that the entire development is enacted by means of the aforementioned building blocks. This means that no global gradients or different modes of chemotaxis are needed to complete the culmination.

this is so cool. i looooove complex behavior from simple rules

[halomancer]

Alright, I’ve decided to go through with the Model Organism Bracket! I’m going with twelve of the more common species, plus four lesser-known, comment-submitted wildcards. My tentative bracket (unorganized and some common names because I’m tired):

Standard competitors

Mouse

E. coli

Baker’s yeast

Dictyostelium

Drosophila melanogaster

Aspergillus

Arabidopsis

Schmidtea mediterranea

4 yet-to-be-decided

Wildcards

Parhyale hawaiensis

3 yet-to-be-decided

If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment them! The current competition is very animal-heavy and I’d like some representation from other taxa. The list is still subject to change, and probably not in Animalia’s favor.

[snailpants]

Surface antigen dynamics in the slime mold, Dictyostelium discoideum

By Gregg, James H

[yeast-papers]

The Dictyostelium discoideum FimA protein, unlike yeast and plant fimbrins, is regulated by calcium similar to mammalian plastins

Pubmed: http://dlvr.it/SwhzCs

[fmet]

S/o to Dictyostelium discoideum. She's crazyyyyyyyyyyy. Love her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jobrxiv]

Postdoctoral positions in ecology, evolution, and genetics of Dictyostelium Washington University in St. Louis Postdoctoral position in #ecology, #evolution, and #genetics of Dictyostelium discoideum and its #bacteria at the Queller-Strassmann lab in St. Louis! See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/washington-university-in-st-louis-27778-postdoctoral-positions-in-ecology-evolution-and-genetics-of-dictyostelium/?feed_id=57439 #ScienceJobs #hiring #research #predation #WUSTL #ecoevojobs Saint Louis #UnitedStatesUS #PostdoctoralFellow

[evoldir]

Fwd: Postdoc: WashingtonU.MicrobialEvolution

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Postdoc: WashingtonU.MicrobialEvolution > Date: 3 March 2023 at 06:05:49 GMT > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > Postdoctoral position in ecology, evolution, and genetics of > Dictyostelium discoideum and its bacteria The Queller-Strassmann group > at Washington University in St. Louis has a postdoctoral position for > a highly motivated individual interested in exploring this fascinating > microbial system. Current funding is for studying D. discoideum as a > super-generalist predator, but we are also open to great ideas from you > within the general area of social evolution, symbiosis, and predator-prey > interactions using the microbial organisms we study.to other questions. We > are looking for someone with microbiology experience. Approaches > can include genetics, genomics, microbiome, field, laboratory, and > experimental evolution. > > David Queller and Joan Strassmann lead a friendly and interactive team > of highly motivated, creative, and smart investigators.  Check out > our website, (https://ift.tt/JMRPTO5) > for more information on our lab, or Strassmann???s blog > (https://ift.tt/RzfDP9p). If you are interested in joining our > group, please send an email to Joan Strassmann (Strassmann@wustl.edu) > with a single file including CV, statement of research interests, and > the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of three references. Women > and underrepresented minorities are particularly encouraged to apply. We > will begin reviewing applications by March 20 and will continue to accept > them until the positions are filled. Start date is flexible. > > Joan and Dave > > Joan E. Strassmann > Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology > > Washington University in St Louis > strassmann@wustl.edu > phone: 832-978-5961 > look for my book, Slow Birding, just out! > https://ift.tt/yr0x8iY > > "Strassmann, Joan"

[365elephantsoap]

THANKFUL FRIDAY

Many of you may not know that I took the MCAT before I took the GRE to apply for grad school. I was still undecided about medical school. Honestly, I didn’t know what I wanted. Here is what I knew: I was flooded with excitement and wonder whenever I looked in a microscope and even the smallest scientific discovery made me clap my hands with glee. Life around us is fascinating and the tiny life forms of this planet are spectacular. I did very well on the MCAT, well enough to probably get in to medical school, but something told me that I would not find that life to be as fascinating.

When I started working for Margaret, I didn’t know anything about Dictyostelium, but I learned very quickly how to grow, culture and care for these little soil amebas, as well as manipulating them for microscopy viewing. When food is scarce for Dicty, they’ll send out a signal to other Dicty cells in the area. Then they all group together to form a slug that eventually transforms itself. The head of the slug becomes spores while the rest turn into a stalk with a fruiting body on the end containing dormant cells that can fall off under more favorable conditions. A large portion of the cell community dies so that some cells can live on later when there’s more food or the environment is nicer. We kept plates of Dicty in this form and I remember asking Margaret once about seeing them like this in the wild. She assured me that it was possible to find Dicty in the wild as fruiting bodies and since then I’ve been a little obsessed with the idea. 2022 was my year for seeing Dicty in the wild. First, Heather sent me a picture of them growing on her car. Then I found some hanging off my porch light. That sighting made me light up and immediately morph into Jordan from Real Genius. I excitedly told Michael all about the life cycle of Dicty while I took photos of our porch light.

Recently I’ve been talking to one of our graduate students about making miso. He’s been experimenting with trying to make his own koji (think starter, like sourdough, but with Aspergillus oryzae instead of yeast). This week he brought me a book on making koji and we had a long nerdy talk about trying to culture the powder koji starter that he has. I helped him get set up on a microscope and then went back to my desk. I started flipping through the pages of the book and came across some glossy prints of microscopic images and I got so excited. I ran back into the microscopy room and sat down next the grad student and started blathering about culturing and checking strains with microscopy and I got really excited about making my own miso. The part that excites about making miso has very little to do with making actual miso, but a whole lot to do with the science side of fermentation.

So here’s my gratitude. I am so grateful to be in a position where I have been able to maintain my excitement and enthusiasm for life sciences. With my job and the people I get to interact with every day, it sometimes feels like a dream. It is the difference between just having a job and getting to choose your job and that is a privilege.

[bpod-bpod]

Follow My Lead

Life is simple if you’re a Dictyostelium slime mould. Most of the time, you spend your days as a free-living single cell in the soil. But when things get tough and food starts running low, you and all your friends send out signals enabling you to come together to form a tiny ‘slug’ that can move further afield in search of a better life. Certain genetic changes (mutations) prevent this slug from forming, but even these mutant slime mould cells can still work together by playing a miniature game of ‘follow my leader’. This video shows individual cells making contact and forming a travelling band that moves together in the same direction in response to chemical signals. This collective cell migration might also underpin many processes in development and disease in more complex animals, such as forming organs and limbs, wound healing, and enabling cancers to spread around the body.

Written by Kat Arney

Video from work by Masayuki Hayakawa and colleagues

Laboratory for Physical Biology, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, April 2020

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[hyaesia]

dictyostelium halloween pfps for me n a friend 🕺🕺

[eldritch-spouse]

I just remembered that you mentioned that if I took a piece of Gallon it would eventually make its way back to him and I need to know how? Is it like Dictyostelium? Or do they slime mold their way back to him or is it like Thing from the Addams family?

Honestly I think it would be cute if they turned into mini hims and just walk back tripping people along the way

[Fuckin' mini Gallons in a conga line making their way to big Gallon like "'Scuse me, passing through-". I'm gonna die laughing ahdsjdh]

While small droplets separated from each other hardly ever move, they'll gravitate towards each other if they landed within a certain distance. The bigger the portion of slime is, the more force it has behind its movement, meaning it will "try harder" to reach Gallon.

This is a very rudimentary sort of pull however, the separated slime cannot avoid obstacles beyond going above or below them if possible. Gallon, like most slimes, has control over pieces of himself which have recently separated from his main body, but this is fleeting. He may have to manually reconnect with severed pieces of himself. And, I think I mentioned somewhere that if a slime's severed part remains more than two hours disconnected from the main body, it'll start to die, decomposing from then on. Slimes can be killed if you cleave them in two and somehow keep the halves apart.

If Gallon loses part of his matter by not reconnecting with it for more than two hours, he'll have to recover, mostly by eating properly and letting his body create replacement mass on its own. Losing a considerable amount of slime will naturally leave him quite incapacitated and disoriented.

[iru-street-i-am]

Eco-evolutionary significance of “loners”

Experiments

D. discoideum growth and plating. NC28.1, NC34.1, and NC85.2—three clonal lineages of D. discoideum originally isolated from Little Butt’s Gap, North Carolina [49]—were obtained from dictyBase [50] and grown on Klebsiella aerogenes lawns prepared on SM agar plates [51]. After the D. discoideumcells aggregated and formed fruiting bodies, spores were harvested and used to inoculate 3…