Electroporation of Dictyostelium discoideum

Dictyostelium discoideum has long been an intriguing model system for the study of cell type divergence during development, cell signaling, gene expression, and other cell biological problems (1 ). With the development of DNA-mediated transformation, research in Dictyostelium has entered a new era. The ability to introduce molecules into cells has allowed the analysis of promoters by transient and stable expression of reporter genes, such as luciferase and β-galactosidase (2 ,3 ). Stable transformants have also been created that overexpress normal and altered copies of important structural and regulatory proteins (4 –9 ). Most importantly, the development of homologous gene targeting and antisense RNA inhibition of gene expression has allowed the creation of mutant cell lines lacking specific gene products (10 ,11 ). These techniques, coupled with the recently created ordered yeast artificial chromosome library, will allow large-scale mapping, fine structure mapping, and eventually sequencing of the entire genome (12 ).