Sex Determination in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum

Abstract

Sex Triangle The model organism Dictyostelium discoideum is a social amoeba that has three sexes, or mating types, that do not resemble those in any other eukaryote studied so far. Any two sexes can form a diploid zygote, which will recruit other haploid cells to form a macrocyst. Bloomfield et al. (p. 1533 ; see the Perspective by Kessin ) found that sex in this amoeba is determined by several genes at a locus on chromosome 5, with each mating type represented by a different version of the locus. Not all of the genes were directly essential for successful mating, and the master regulators appeared to be two small soluble intracellular proteins, which control mating types I and III, and a combination of homologs of these two proteins that control mating type II.