Abberant chemotaxis and differentiation in Dictyostelium mutant fgdC with a defective regulation of receptor-stimulated phosphoinositidase C.

Dictyostelium cells use extracellular cyclic AMP both as a chemoattractant and as a morphogen inducing cell-type-specific gene expression. Cyclic AMP binds to surface receptors, activates one or more G-proteins, and stimulates adenylate cyclase, guanylate cyclase and phosphoinositidase C. Mutant fgdC showed aberrant chemotaxis, and was devoid of cyclic AMP-induced gene expression and differentiation. Both the receptor- and G-protein-mediated stimulation of adenylate cyclase and guanylate cyclase were unaltered in mutant fgdC as compared to wild-type cells. In wild-type cells phosphoinositidase C was activated about twofold by the cyclic AMP receptor. In mutant fgdC cells, however, the enzyme was inhibited by about 60%. These results suggest that phosphoinositidase C is regulated by a receptor-operated activation/inhibition switch that is defective in mutant fgdC. We conclude that activation of phosphoinositidase C is essential for Dictyostelium development.