Immune-like Phagocyte Activity in the Social Amoeba
Open accessAbstract
Social amoebae feed on bacteria in the soil but aggregate when starved to form a migrating slug. We describe a previously unknown cell type in the social amoeba, which appears to provide detoxification and immune-like functions and which we term sentinel (S) cells. S cells were observed to engulf bacteria and sequester toxins while circulating within the slug, eventually being sloughed off. A Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain protein, TirA, was also required for some S cell functions and for vegetative amoebae to feed on live bacteria. This apparent innate immune function in social amoebae, and the use of TirA for bacterial feeding, suggest an ancient cellular foraging mechanism that may have been adapted to defense functions well before the diversification of the animals.
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tirA has been recently shown to be involved in an immune-like phagocyte response in Dictyostelium cells at later stages of development.
“The latter has been recently shown to be involved in an immune-like phagocyte response in Dictyostelium cells at later stages of development [69].”
From Genome-wide transcriptional changes induced by phagocytosis or growth on bacteria in Dictyostelium (2008) · cites this paper as [69]
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Metchnikoff and the phagocytosis theory
Tauber, A. I. (2003) · Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology · doi:10.1038/nrm1244 · Cited by 413 · see citing works
Solomon, J. M., Rupper, A., Cardelli, J. A., & Isberg, R. R. (2000) · Infection and Immunity · doi:10.1128/iai.68.5.2939-2947.2000 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
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Ortmann, W., & Kolaczkowska, E. (2018) · Cell and Tissue Research · doi:10.1007/s00441-017-2751-4 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Genome-wide transcriptional changes induced by phagocytosis or growth on bacteria in Dictyostelium
Sillo, A., Bloomfield, G., Balest, A., Balbo, A., Pergolizzi, B., Peracino, B., Skelton, J., Ivens, A., & Bozzaro, S. (2008) · BMC Genomics · doi:10.1186/1471-2164-9-291 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Pan, M., Neilson, M. P., Grunfeld, A. M., Cruz, P., Wen, X., Insall, R. H., & Jin, T. (2018) · PLOS Biology · doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2005754 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chen, G., Zhuchenko, O., & Kuspa, A.
- Affiliations
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Guokai
- Zhuchenko, Olga
- Kuspa, Adam
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2007-08-03
- Volume
- 317
- Issue
- 5838
- Pages
- 678-681
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- PMC
- PMC3291017
- OpenAlex
- W2056354961
- Cited by
- 205
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 5.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM-52359, R01GM052359)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD39691, P01HD039691)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immune Response and Inflammation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Slime Mold and Myxomycetes Research
- Keywords
- social amoebae, sentinel cells, innate immunity, TIRA, bacterial phagocytosis, toxin sequestration, slug migration, bacterial feeding, detoxification, immune system evolution
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cell Separation, Dictyostelium, Ethidium, Fluorescent Dyes, Immunity, Innate, Mutation, Phagocytes, Phagocytosis, Protozoan Proteins, Gene Expression, Legionella pneumophila, Cytoplasmic Vesicles
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