AUTHOR=Haver Holly N. , Scaglione K. Matthew 

TITLE=Dictyostelium discoideum as a Model for Investigating Neurodegenerative Diseases

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncel.2021.759532

DOI=10.3389/fncel.2021.759532

ISSN=1662-5102

ABSTRACT=<p>The social amoeba <italic>Dictyostelium discoideum</italic> is a model organism that is used to investigate many cellular processes including chemotaxis, cell motility, cell differentiation, and human disease pathogenesis. While many single-cellular model systems lack homologs of human disease genes, <italic>Dictyostelium’s</italic> genome encodes for many genes that are implicated in human diseases including neurodegenerative diseases. Due to its short doubling time along with the powerful genetic tools that enable rapid genetic screening, and the ease of creating knockout cell lines, <italic>Dictyostelium</italic> is an attractive model organism for both interrogating the normal function of genes implicated in neurodegeneration and for determining pathogenic mechanisms that cause disease. Here we review the literature involving the use of <italic>Dictyostelium</italic> to interrogate genes implicated in neurodegeneration and highlight key questions that can be addressed using <italic>Dictyostelium</italic> as a model organism.</p>