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Multiple signalling pathways connect chemoattractant receptors and calcium channels in Dictyostelium

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Abstract

Dictyostelium mutants expressing aequorin were used to study and compare the roles of heterotrimeric G-proteins and the second messengers IP3 and cGMP in regulating folate- and cAMP receptor-activated [Ca2+]i signals. The calcium responses of vegetative cells to folate were dramatically impaired in Gβ and Gα4 null mutants but were restored with altered kinetics and temperature-sensitivity in Gβ null mutants overexpressing wild type and temperature-sensitive Gβ isoforms. Folic acid receptors thus mediate changes in [Ca2+]i via a Gα4βγ-dependent pathway. Neither folate nor cAMP-induced [Ca2+]i signals were significantly altered in PLC null transformants, but [Ca2+]i changes elicited by both attractants were significantly prolonged in two stmF mutants lacking cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase activity. This confirms an important role of cGMP in regulating receptor-activated Ca2+ uptake and/or extrusion systems. This cGMP-dependent part of the Ca2+ response to cAMP stimuli was developmentally down-regulated and all but disappeared by the time the cells reached full aggregation competence after 8 h of starvation. The results suggest that folate and cAMP receptor-activated [Ca2+]i signals are regulated in a complex manner via multiple signalling pathways, one that is G-protein- and cGMP-dependent (present at the vegetative and early poststarvation stage) and another that is G-protein-independent (dominant in fully aggregation-competent cells at ∼8 h poststarvation).

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Author notes

  1. Thomas Nebl

    Present address: The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Post Office, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, 3050, Australia

  2. Martha Kotsifas

    Present address: Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Melbourne, Royal Pde, Victoria, 3010, Australia

  3. Pauline Schaap

    Present address: School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, MSI/WTB Complex, Dow Street, Dundee, DD1 5EH, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3083, Australia

    Thomas Nebl, Martha Kotsifas & Paul R. Fisher

  2. Institute for Plant Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AL, The Netherlands

    Pauline Schaap

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Nebl, T., Kotsifas, M., Schaap, P. et al. Multiple signalling pathways connect chemoattractant receptors and calcium channels in Dictyostelium . J Muscle Res Cell Motil 23, 853–865 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024496232604

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