dictyNews Electronic Edition Volume 26, number 14 May 12, 2006 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. ============= Abstracts ============= Title: Clathrin Light Chain: Importance of the Conserved Carboxy-Terminal Domain to Function in Living Cells Authors: Jingshan Wang, Yanqin Wang, and Theresa J. O'Halloran Traffic, in press Clathrin triskelions assemble into coats capable of packaging membrane and receptors for transport to intracellular destinations. A triskelion is formed from three heavy chains bound to three light chains. All clathrin light chains contain an acidic amino terminal domain, a central coiled segment and a carboxy-terminal domain conserved in amino acid sequence. To assess their functional contribution in vivo, we expressed tagged segments of the Dictyostelium clcA in clathrin light chain-minus Dictyostelium (clc null) cells. We examined the ability of these clcA fragments to rescue clathrin phenotypic deficiencies, to cluster into punctae on membranes, and to bind to the heavy chain. When expressed in clc null cells, a clcA fragment containing the amino-terminal domain and the central coiled domain bound heavy chain, but was dispensable for clathrin function. Instead, the carboxy-terminal domain of clcA was a critical determinant for association with punctae, for clathrin function and for robust binding to the heavy chain. A 70 amino acid carboxy-terminal fragment was necessary and sufficient for full function, and for localization into punctae on intracellular membranes. A shorter 49 amino acid carboxy-terminal fragment could distribute into punctae, but failed to rescue developmental deficiencies. These results reveal the importance of the carboxy-terminal domain of the light chain in vivo. Submitted by: Terry OÕHalloran [t.ohalloran@mail.utexas.edu] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============== Announcement ============== A special issue of European Journal of Cell Biology (Vol. 85, issue 8/9) is being published to honour Guenther Gerisch on the occasion of his 75. birthday (which was on May 2). The issue contains research articles and reviews, which have been compiled for this occasion by former students and colleagues who have collaborated with Guenther in the past. While we wish to Guenther all the best on the occasion of his birthday, we want to acknowledge with this initiative Guenther's influential contributions to cell biology in 50 years research, which were also groundbreaking for establishing Dictyostelium as a leading model organism. The content of the issue is the following: Editorial * Annette Mueller-Taubenberger and Salvatore Bozzaro: From cell-cell adhesion and cellular oscillations to spectacular views inside the cell - 50 years of research with Dictyostelium * John Heuser: Evidence for recycling of contractile vacuole membrane during osmoregulation in Dictyostelium amoebae Reviews * Atsuo T. Sasaki, Richard A. Firtel: Regulation of chemotaxis by the orchestrated activation of Ras, PI3K, and TOR * Tian Jin, Dale Hereld: Moving toward understanding eukaryotic chemotaxis * Igor Weber: Is there a pilot in a pseudopod? * Sara Mattei, GŽrard Klein, Michel Satre, Laurence Aubry: Trafficking and developmental signalling: Alix at the crossroads * Yogikala Prabhu, Ludwig Eichinger: The Dictyostelium repertoire of seven transmembrane receptors * Georgia Vlahou, Francisco Rivero: Rho GTPase signaling in Dictyostelium discoideum: insights from the genome * Hideko Urushihara, Tetsuya Muramoto: Sexual reproduction and its genetic control in Dictyostelium * Leonard Bosgraaf, Peter J. M. van Haastert: Regulation of myosin II in Dictyostelium Original articles * Song, L., Nadkarni, S., Bodeker, H., Beta, C., Bae, A., Frank, C., Rappel, W-J., Loomis, W. F. and Bodenschatz, E.: Dictyostelium discoideum chemotaxis: threshold for directed motion * Dirk Wienke, Anja Drengk, Nicole Jenne, Markus Maniak: Vacuolin, a flotillin/reggie-like protein from Dictyostelium oligomerizes for endosomes association * Margaret Clarke, Lucinda Maddera: Phagocyte meets Prey: Uptake, internalization, and killing of bacteria by Dictyostelium amoebae * Marija Marko, Yogikala Prabhu, Rolf Mueller, Rosemarie Blau-Wasser, Michael Schleicher, Angelika A. Noegel: The annexins of Dictyostelium * Daniel Rosel, Alan R. Kimmel: The COP9 signalosome regulates cell profileration of Dictyostelium discoideum * Axel Strehle, Michael Schleicher and Hans Faix: Trix, a novel Rac guanine nucleotide exchange factor in Dictyostelium discoideum is associated with the plasma membrane and late endosomes * Katrina Boeckeler, Kathryn Adley, Xuehua Xu, Alex Jenkins, Tian Jin, Robin S. B. Williams: The neuroprotective agent, valproic acid, regulates the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway through modulation of protein A signalling in Dictyostelium discoideum * Rajesh Arasada, Hyunju Son, Nagendran Ramalingam, Ludwig Eichinger, Michael Schleicher, Meino Rohlfs: Characterization of the STE20 like kinase Krs1 of Dictyostelium discoideum * Alessandra Balbo, Salvatore Bozzaro: Cloning of Dictyostelium eIF6 (p27BBP) and mapping its nucle(ol)ar localization subdomains * Katrin V. Koch, Yvonne Reinders, Thi-Hieu Ho, Albert Sickmann, Ralph Graef: Identification and isolation of Dictyostelium microtubule-associated protein interactors by tandem affinity purification * Alice Y. Pollitt, Simone L. Blagg, Neysi Ibarra, Robert H. Insall: Cell motility and Scar localisation in axenically growing Dictyostelium cells (Short communication) * Esther Bandala-Sanchez, Sarah J. Annesley, Paul Fisher: A phototaxis signalling complex in Dictyostelium discoideum (Short communication) * Angelika Boettger, Dominik Strasser, Margherita Lasi, Silvia Fischer, Alice Levine, Olga Alexandrova and Charles N. David: Genetic screen for signal peptides in Hydra reveals a novel class of sequences supporting protein secretion * Annette Mueller-Taubenberger, Michel Vos, Angelika Boettger, Margherita Lasi, Frank P. L. Lai, Markus Fischer, Klemens Rottner: Monomeric red fluorescent protein variants used for imaging studies in different species (It is possible to order the issue at a special price of 30 Euro, if a total of at least 50 orders is reached. Interested people, please, send a message to amueller@lrz.uni-muenchen.de). Submitted by: Salvo Bozzaro [salvatore.bozzaro@unito.it] ============================================================================== [End dictyNews, volume 26, number 14]