Cyclic AMP Receptors of Dictyostelium

When confronted with starvation, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum survives by undergoing multicellular development and sporulation. The coordination of these processes is achieved in part through intercellular communication using secreted adenosine 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and a family of cell-surface cAMP receptors (cARs). The cARs are examples of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which enable eukaryotic cells in general to sense and respond to a wide array of environmental and hormonal signals ranging from single photons to large glycoprotein hormones. Due to their involvement in diverse physiological processes, GPCR-targeted drugs are frequently employed in medicine to treat many common conditions, including inflammation, hypertension, heart failure, and neurologic and psychiatric disorders. Because GPCRs and the pathways they regulate are conserved in virtually all eukaryotes examined to date, genetically tractable microbes such as Dictyostelium have contributed significantly to our understanding of GPCR function and regulation.