The Dictyostelium discoideum proteome--the SWISS-2DPAGE database of the multicellular aggregate (slug)

The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a eukaryotic microorganism which has developmental life stages attractive to the cell and molecular biologist. By displaying the two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) protein map of different developmental stages, the key molecules can be identified and characterised, allowing a detailed understanding of the D. discoideum proteome. Here we describe the preparation of reference gel of the D. discoideum multicellular aggregate, the slug. Proteins were separated by 2-D PAGE with immobilised pH gradients (pH 3.5-10) in the first dimension and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-PAGE in the second dimension. Micropreparative gels were electroblotted onto polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes and 150 spots were visualised by amido black staining. Protein spots were excised and 31 were putatively identified by matching their amino acid composition, estimated isoelectric point (pI) and molecular weight (M(r)) against the SWISS-PROT database with the ExPASy AAcompID tool (http:// expasy.hcuge.ch/ch2d/aacompi.html). A total of 25 proteins were identified by matching against database entries for D. discoideum, and another six by cross-species matching against database entries for Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteins. This map will be available in the SWISS-2DPAGE database.