A matricellular protein and EGF-like repeat signalling in the social amoebozoan Dictyostelium discoideum

This week we recognize one of our recent graduates, Dr. Robert Huber (O’Day Lab). Rob recently published a major review entitled: “A matricellular protein and EGF-like repeat signalling in the social amoebozoan Dictyostelium discoideum”, in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. The cysteine-rich extracellular calmodulin binding protein CyrA contains 4 EGF-like repeats in its C-terminus. This work reviews the evidence showing that these EGF-like repeats enhance cell motility in Dictyostelium just as they do in mammals. In total, the data discussed reveal that CyrA is the first matricellular to be identified in a eukaryotic microbe.

Rob is now at Harvard Medical School doing a post-doc. Congratulations and good luck!

Read this paper