Urushihara H, Aiba K
University of Tsukuba, Institute of Biological Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan.
Cell Struct Funct. 1996 Feb;21(1):41-6. doi: 10.1247/csf.21.41.
The sexual cycle of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum offers a suitable system to analyze the mechanism of cell recognition during mating. Sexual cell fusion in D. discoideum typically occurs between complementary heterothallic strains. In addition, several bisexual strains are known which undergo sexual cell fusion with heterothallic strains of either mating type, but cannot do so by themselves. In the present study, trypsin digestion of cell surface molecules was found to induce self-fusion in a bisexual strain WS2162, suggesting the presence on the cell surface of a self-recognition molecule whose homophilic interaction interferes with the cell fusion mechanism.
细胞黏菌盘基网柄菌的有性周期为分析交配过程中的细胞识别机制提供了一个合适的系统。盘基网柄菌中的有性细胞融合通常发生在互补的异宗配合菌株之间。此外，已知有几种双性菌株，它们能与任何一种交配型的异宗配合菌株进行有性细胞融合，但自身无法进行有性细胞融合。在本研究中，发现用胰蛋白酶消化细胞表面分子可诱导双性菌株WS2162发生自体融合，这表明细胞表面存在一种自我识别分子，其同源相互作用会干扰细胞融合机制。
