dictyNews Electronic Edition Volume 38, number 28 November 9, 2012 Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been accepted for publication by sending them to dicty@northwestern.edu or by using the form at http://dictybase.org/db/cgi-bin/dictyBase/abstract_submit. Back issues of dictyNews, the Dicty Reference database and other useful information is available at dictyBase - http://dictybase.org. Follow dictyBase on twitter: http://twitter.com/dictybase ========= Abstracts ========= Simple system - substantial share: The use of Dictyostelium in cell biology and molecular medicine (Review) Annette MŸller-Taubenberger (a), Arjan Kortholt (b), Ludwig Eichinger (c) (a) Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Schillerstr. 42, 80336 Munich, Germany (b) Department of Cell Biochemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747AG Groningen, The Netherlands (c) Institute for Biochemistry I, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str. 52, 50931 Cologne, Germany European Journal of Cell Biology, in press Dictyostelium discoideum offers unique advantages for studying fundamental cellular processes, host pathogen interactions as well as the molecular causes of human diseases. The organism can be easily grown in large amounts and is amenable to diverse biochemical, cell biological and genetic approaches. Throughout their life cycle Dictyostelium cells are motile, and thus are perfectly suited to study random and directed cell motility with the underlying changes in signal transduction and the actin cytoskeleton. Dictyostelium is also increasingly used for the investigation of human disease genes and the crosstalk between host and pathogen. As a professional phagocyte it can be infected with several human bacterial pathogens and used to study the infection process. The availability of a large number of knock-out mutants renders Dictyostelium particularly useful for the elucidation and investigation of host cell factors. A powerful armoury of molecular genetic techniques that have been continuously expanded over the years and a well curated genome sequence, which is accessible via the online database dictyBase, considerably strengthened DictyosteliumÕs experimental attractiveness and its value as model organism. Submitted by Annette MŸller-Taubenberger [amueller@lrz.uni-muenchen.de] ============================================================== [End dictyNews, volume 38, number 28]