Journal
EMBO REPORTS
Volume 12, Issue 12, Pages 1273-1279Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/embor.2011.210
Keywords
chemotaxis; shallow gradients; Ras; amplification; synergy
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Central to chemotaxis is the molecular mechanism by which cells exhibit directed movement in shallow gradients of a chemoattractant. We used Dictyostelium mutants to investigate the minimal requirements for chemotaxis, and identified a basal signalling module providing activation of Ras at the leading edge, which is sufficient for chemotaxis. The signalling enzymes PI3K, TorC2, PLA2 and sGC are not required for Ras activation and chemotaxis to folate or to steep gradients of cAMP, but they provide a memory of direction and improved orientation of the cell, which together increase the sensitivity about 150-fold for chemotaxis in shallow cAMP gradients.
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