The effects of expression of an activated rasG mutation on the differentiation of Dictyostelium.

Dictyostelium discoideum contains two ras genes, rasG and rasD, that are expressed during growth and differentiation, respectively. It was shown previously that Dictyostelium transformants expressing an activated rasD gene (a mutation producing a change in amino acid 12 from glycine to threonine) developed abnormally. When developed on filters these transformants formed multitipped aggregates, which did not go on to produce final fruiting bodies, but in a submerged culture assay on a plastic surface they either formed small aggregates or did not aggregate. In this study we transformed cells with the rasG gene, mutated to change amino acid 12 from glycine to threonine. The resulting transformants developed normally on filters, but aggregation under other conditions was impaired. In particular, in submerged culture on a plastic surface they either produced very small aggregates or did not aggregate, one of the phenotypes exhibited by the activated rasD transformants. Molecular analysis of the transformants revealed the presence of high copy numbers of the mutated rasG gene, but the level of expression of the mutant gene never exceeded the level of expression of the endogenous gene. These results indicate a powerful dominant effect of a relatively small amount of the activated RasG protein in Dictyostelium.