How human leukocytes track down and destroy pathogens: lessons learned from the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum

Human leukocytes, including macrophages and neutrophils, are phagocytic immune cells that capture and engulf pathogens and subsequently destroy them in intracellular vesicles. To accomplish this vital task, these leukocytes utilize two basic cell behaviors-chemotaxis for chasing down infectious pathogens and phagocytosis for destroying them. The molecular mechanisms controlling these behaviors are not well understood for immune cells. Interestingly, a soil amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum, uses these same behaviors to pursue and injest its bacterial food source and to organize its multi-cellular development. Consequently, studies of this model system have provided and will continue to provide us with mechanistic insights into the chemotaxis and phagocytosis of immune cells. Here, we review recent research in these areas that have been conducted in the Chemotaxis Signal Section of NIAID's Laboratory of Immunogenetics.