Glorin signaling during the multicellular development of social amoebae (SIGMOSA)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Pierre Stallforth; Professor Dr. Thomas Winckler
• Subject Area: Metabolism, Biochemistry and Genetics of Microorganisms ; Parasitology and Biology of Tropical Infectious Disease Pathogens
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 398377386

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

In this project, we investigated the molecular basis of glorin signaling using a combination of proteomics, metabolomics, and chemical biology approaches. This signaling network enables a group of social amoebae to orchestrate multicellular aggregation. Except for the nature of the signal molecule virtually nothing is known about the components of this network including the receptor(s), degrading enzymes(s), or other potential interaction partners. Based on the combination of bioassay-guided fractionation and photoaffinity labeling we could identify candidate proteins that may be involved in the complex interaction network. Furthermore, we established a metabolomics platform that allows to monitor the metabolite production of amoebae under different conditions.

Publications

• The chemoattractant glorin is inactivated by ester cleavage during early multicellular development of Polysphondylium pallidum. ACS Chem. Biol. 15 (2018), 1506-1513
  Heinrich, D., Barnett, R., Tweedy, L., Insall, R., Stallforth, P, Winckler, T.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.8b00046)
• Yellow polyketide pigment suppresses premature hatching in social amoeba. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 119, (2022), e2116122119
  Günther, M., Reimer, C., Herbst, R., Kufs, J. E., Rautschek, J., Ueberschaar, N., Zhang, S., Peschel, G., Reimer, L., Regestein, L., Valiante, V., Hillmann, F., Stallforth P.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2116122119)