A better way to discover gene function in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

For many years, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum has served as a system to understand what it takes to generate a multicellular organism. Biochemistry and biophysics have defined many of the underlying interactions of protein and cytoskeletal complexes, and sequence analyses have quantitatively defined the changes in gene expression programs. However, the dearth of genetic studies that offer insight into the roles of specific genes has prevented the more widespread use of this fascinating model organism. The eukaryotic amoebas of Dictyostelium provide all the advantages of growth as a microorganism and development as a multicellular organism. As a consequence, they can be analyzed using the techniques of microbial genetics that rely on having millions, even billions, of cells from which to select rare mutant strains; at the same time, they present a myriad of multicellular phenotypes from which to pick.