Austin, M.B., Saito, T., Bowman, M.E., Haydock, S., Kato, A., Moore, B.S., Kay, R.R. & Noel, J.P. (2006)
Biosynthesis of Dictyostelium Differentiation Inducing Factor by a hybrid type I fatty acid-type III polyketide synthase.
Nature Chem. Biol. 2, 494-502.
Hoeller, O. & Kay, R. R. (2007)
Chemotaxis in the absence of PIP3 gradients.
Curr. Biol. 17, 813-817.
Kay, R. R., Langridge, P., Traynor, D. & Hoeller, O. (2008)
Changing directions in the study of chemotaxis.
Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 455-463.
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Group Members
- David Traynor
- Gareth Bloomfield
- Louise Fets
- Evgeny Zatulovskiy
- John Nichols
- Marwah Hassan
- Sophia Sander
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Many types of cells can crawl slowly from place to place, guided by gradients of attractive or repulsive chemicals in their environment. Chemotaxis helps to pattern the embryo, and in later life it is required for healing wounds and attracting immune cells to infections; its mis-regulation can cause disease. The Dictyostelium amoebae that we study move in a similar way to neutrophils and use chemotaxis to hunt bacterial prey and to find each other during development.
We want to know how these cells read chemotactic gradients. What are the motors that move them? How is their surface area adjusted as they change shape?
Many drugs derive from natural products that are produced by micro-organisms for ecological competition. The Dictyostelium genome reveals a large capacity for making polyketides, but little is known about them.
Based on our experience with the polyketide DIF, we are exploring Dictyostelium natural products and their metabolizing enzymes. These include the novel ‘steely’ polyketide synthases and a dechlorinating enzyme.
Both projects rely on our extensive experience of Dictyostelium biology and molecular genetics, and we also use advanced light microscopy and biochemical techniques, as appropriate.
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Group Leaders 
