This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Dietrich Kessler, Colgate University and Dr. Jennifer Dee, Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, England. The objective of the proposed research is the investigation of the molecular basis of actomyosin-based cell motility in non-muscle cells. As a model system, the investigators will use the myxomycete Physarum polycephallum, a protist with rapid protoplasmic movement. This possesses a well-defined meiotic life cycle, which can be manipulated genetically in the laboratory. In the study, Drs. Kessler and Dee propose to collect a variety of different motility mutants in both vegetative stages of the life cycle, amoebae and plasmodia. Later the mutants will be essential for cloning the genes and studying the proteins important for motility and its regulation in this organism.The results of this project will be of great interest to investigators interested in the mechanism of cytoplasmic movement in individual cells from a variety of organisms. This project will benefit from the complementary expertise of the two investigators. Dr. Kessler has studied actomyosin- based motility in Physarum for many years, and brings first- hand knowledge to the project about the biochemical mechanism of motility and its regulation in this organism, and in skeletal muscle. Dr. Dee brings great experience with genetic techniques in studying Physarum, in particular using screening procedures for the isolation of mutants.
