Folic acid deaminase activity during development in Dictyostelium discoideum.

Folic acid attracts vegetative amoebae of Dictyostelium discoideum. Secreted by bacteria, it may act as a food-seeking device. The inactivation of this attractant is catalyzed by a deaminase.

Purification and preliminary characterization of an aggregation-sensitive chemoattractant of Dictyostelium minutum.

Aggregative amoebae of Dictyostelium minutum are not attracted by cyclic AMP; they are sensitive to various attracting sources from which yeast extract was chosen to purify the chemoattractant. A small acrasin-like species-specific molecule which contains glycine and C5H5N5 has been purified 30,000-fold. Several characteristics of this chemotactic molecule, which is inactivated by an enzyme that is not species specific, are described.