Abstract
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a membranous network with an intricate dynamic architecture necessary for various essential cellular processes. Nearly one third of the proteins trafficking through the secretory pathway are folded and matured in the ER. Additionally, it acts as calcium storage, and it is a main source for lipid biosynthesis. The ER is highly connected with other organelles through regions of membrane apposition that allow organelle remodeling, as well as lipid and calcium traffic. Cells are under constant changes due to metabolic requirements and environmental conditions that challenge the ER network’s maintenance. The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a signaling pathway that restores homeostasis of this intracellular compartment upon ER stress conditions by reducing the load of proteins, and by increasing the processes of protein folding and degradation. Significant progress on the study of the mechanisms that restore ER homeostasis was achieved using model organisms such as yeast, Arabidopsis, and mammalian cells. In this review, we address the current knowledge on ER architecture and ER stress response in Dictyostelium discoideum. This social amoeba alternates between unicellular and multicellular phases and is recognized as a valuable biomedical model organism and an alternative to yeast, particularly for the presence of traits conserved in animal cells that were lost in fungi.
Highlights
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a membranous network with an intricate dynamic architecture necessary for various essential cellular processes
The ER–mitochondria encounter structure (ERMES) system comprises an ER transmembrane protein, maintenance of mitochondrial morphology-1 (Mmm1p), and a cytosolic protein, mitochondrial distribution and morphology 12 protein (Mdm12p), which form a complex with two outer mitochondrial membrane proteins, Mdm34p and Mdm10p [38]
In contrast to the yeast unfolded protein response (UPR), in which the entire transcriptional response depends on the inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1) pathway, in Dictyostelium, the response is only partially dependent on inositol-requiring enzyme A (IreA) [7], which suggests that, as in plants and animals, additional input signaling pathways must exist in this amoeba
Summary
Owing to its simplicity and easy genetic manipulability, some microbial organisms prove to be powerful biology-research tools; for instance, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most widely studied eukaryotic organisms. Much of the current knowledge in biochemistry, and molecular and cellular biology arose from research performed with this yeast Since this fungal organism has some specific genetic, cellular, and metabolic traits that are not widely conserved, other eukaryotic microbial organisms emerged to address cellular processes that diverged greatly in yeast cells. One of these organisms is Dictyostelium discoideum, a social soil-dwelling protist, taxonomically classified in the Amoebozoa phylum, the sister group to animals and fungi [1].
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