Two-phase regulatory pathway controls cAMP receptor-mediated expression of early genes in Dictyostelium

Two classes of early genes in Dictyostelium are differentially regulated by extracellular pulses of cAMP interacting with its cell-surface receptor, conditions that also regulate chemotaxis and aggregation. The pulse-repressed genes, such as K5, are induced shortly after the onset of starvation and are repressed a few hr later during aggregation by cAMP pulses. The pulse-induced genes (including D2, M3, and those encoding contact sites A, the G alpha protein subunit G alpha 2, and the cell-surface cAMP receptor) are maximally induced just prior to aggregation by pulses of cAMP and are subsequently repressed by sustained moderate levels of cAMP--conditions that exist sequentially in development. In this manuscript, we further analyze the requirement for cAMP pulses and characterize a requirement for protein synthesis for the expression of these two classes of genes. Our results indicate that the control of expression of both the pulse-induced and pulse-repressed genes requires other developmentally regulated factors in addition to starvation and cAMP pulses. We also identified another early gene, F9, whose expression is stimulated upon starvation, is not responsive to cAMP, and is hyperstimulated by cycloheximide, in a manner similar to the cycloheximide stimulation of c-fos and other serum-induced genes in mammalian cells. Examination of the kinetics of expression of the pulse-induced genes in a mutant blocked in the cAMP relay pathway indicates that their expression is controlled by a two-phase process. The first phase requires starvation and CMF, an extracellular conditioned medium factor, and results in a low level of expression. The second phase requires establishment of the cAMP signal-relay system and induces the genes to a high level. Both phases require prior and concomitant protein synthesis. Some of the members of the pulse-induced class encode elements of the cAMP signal-relay system that controls aggregation, indicating a feedback autoregulation. The two-phase process might allow the "finetuning" of the level of expression of genes involved in aggregation.