Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Cell Biology logoLink to The Journal of Cell Biology
. 1977 Oct 1;75(1):218–236. doi: 10.1083/jcb.75.1.218

Changes of the cell surface and of the digestive apparatus of dictyostelium discoideum during the starvation period triggering aggregation

C De Chastellier, A Ryter
PMCID: PMC2111566  PMID: 144140

Abstract

The effects of starvation on the cell morphology of Dictyostelium discoideum were studied with different cytochemical techniques, and with a morphometric method by which the surface areas of the cell membrane and of the digestive system can be determined. During the first 2 h, the cell membrane becomes very wrinkled and many phagocytic cups and filopods are formed. These changes are in accord with the 40 percent increase in the cell surface area to cytoplasmic volume ratio observed, which is mainly due to a strong decrease in the cytoplasmic volume. At this time of starvation, cells are able to ingest twice as many yeast as during growth. Afterwards, while the phagocytic ability decreases, the phagocytic cups disappear, and all the cells become bristled with many thin filopods. In spite of these morphological changes, no quantitative or topological differences have been observed concerning the polysaccharide content of the plasma membrane, whether it was stained with phosphotungstic acid, silver proteinate, or ruthenium red. During this time, the digestive vacuoles imbricate one into the other. Part of the vacuoles are degraded by this process, thus leading to an atrophy of the digestive apparatus. The digestive apparatus is progressively replaced by an autophagic system. Polysaccharide stainings and morphological observations show that the cytosegresomes seem to originate from the food vacuoles which flatten and sequester portions of cytoplasm. After 5 h of starvation, the digestive system is entirely transformed into an autophagic apparatus. The cell population appears to be homogeneous with respect to these changes. Therefore, potential precursors of prestalk and prespore cells were not observed.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (5.8 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ashworth J. M., Watts D. J. Metabolism of the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum grown in axenic culture. Biochem J. 1970 Sep;119(2):175–182. doi: 10.1042/bj1190175. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Beug H., Gerisch G., Kempff S., Riedel V., Cremer G. Specific inhibition of cell contact formation in Dictyostelium by univalent antibodies. Exp Cell Res. 1970 Nov;63(1):147–158. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(70)90343-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Beug H., Katz F. E., Stein A., Gerisch G. Quantitation of membrane sites in aggregating Dictyostelium cells by use of tritiated univalent antibody. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1973 Nov;70(11):3150–3154. doi: 10.1073/pnas.70.11.3150. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bowers B., Korn E. D. The fine structure of Acanthamoeba castellanii (Neff strain). II. Encystment. J Cell Biol. 1969 Jun;41(3):786–805. doi: 10.1083/jcb.41.3.786. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. George R. P., Hohl H. R., Raper K. B. Ultrastructural development of stalk-producing cells in dictyostelium discoideum, a cellular slime mould. J Gen Microbiol. 1972 May;70(3):477–489. doi: 10.1099/00221287-70-3-477. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gregg J. H., Nesom M. G. Response of Dictyostelium plasma membranes to adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1973 Jun;70(6):1630–1633. doi: 10.1073/pnas.70.6.1630. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gregg J. H., Yu N. Y. Dictyostelium aggregate-less mutant plasma membranes. Exp Cell Res. 1975 Dec;96(2):283–286. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(75)90258-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hames B. D., Weeks G., Ashworth J. M. Glycogen synthetase and the control of glycogen synthesis in the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum during cell differentiation. Biochem J. 1972 Feb;126(3):627–633. doi: 10.1042/bj1260627. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hohl H. R., Hamamoto S. T. Ultrastructure of spore differentiation in Dictyostelium: the prespore vacuole. J Ultrastruct Res. 1969 Mar;26(5):442–453. doi: 10.1016/s0022-5320(69)90050-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lee K. C. Permeability of Dictyostelium discoideum towards amino acids and inulin: a possible relationship between initiation of differentiation and loss of "pool" metabolites. J Gen Microbiol. 1972 Oct;72(3):457–471. doi: 10.1099/00221287-72-3-457. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Luft J. H. Ruthenium red and violet. I. Chemistry, purification, methods of use for electron microscopy and mechanism of action. Anat Rec. 1971 Nov;171(3):347–368. doi: 10.1002/ar.1091710302. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rossomando E. F., Steffek A. J., Mujwid D. K., Alexander S. Scanning electron microscopic observations on cell surface changes during aggregation of Dictyostelium discoideum. Exp Cell Res. 1974 Mar 30;85(1):73–78. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(74)90214-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ryter A., de Chastellier C. Morphometric and cytochemical studies of Dictyostelium discoideum in vegetative phase. Digestive system and membrane turnover. J Cell Biol. 1977 Oct;75(1):200–217. doi: 10.1083/jcb.75.1.200. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. WRIGHT B. E., ANDERSON M. L. Protein and amino acid turnover during differentiation in the slime mold. I. Utilization of endogenous amino acids and proteins. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1960 Sep 9;43:62–66. doi: 10.1016/0006-3002(60)90407-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Weeks G., Ashworth J. M. Glycogen synthetase and the control of glycogen synthesis in the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum during the growth (myxamoebal) phase. Biochem J. 1972 Feb;126(3):617–626. doi: 10.1042/bj1260617. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Weibel E. R., Kistler G. S., Scherle W. F. Practical stereological methods for morphometric cytology. J Cell Biol. 1966 Jul;30(1):23–38. doi: 10.1083/jcb.30.1.23. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Yamada H., Yadomae T., Miyazaki T. Polysaccharides of the cellular slime mold. I. Extracellular polysaccharides in growth phase of Dictyostelium discoideum. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1974 Apr 22;343(2):371–381. doi: 10.1016/0304-4165(74)90101-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Yu N. Y., Gregg J. H. Cell contact mediated differentiation in dictyostelium. Dev Biol. 1975 Dec;47(2):310–318. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(75)90285-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Cell Biology are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES