The dynamics of the directed migration in response to oxygen gradient in eukaryotic simple model

n aerobic organisms, oxygen is essential for efficient energy production and as a regulator of gene expression. Excessive oxygen can, however, lead to the production of deleterious reactive oxygen species. Therefore, the directed migration of single cells or cell clumps from hypoxic areas towards a region of optimal oxygen concentration, named aerotaxis, can be considered an adaptive mechanism, playing a major role in several biological and pathological processes. O2 gradients develop in tumours when they grow beyond their vascular supply, leading to heterogeneous areas of O2 depletion and favouring metastatic migration. The social amoeba Dictyostelium (D.d) is a powerful and genetically accessible model organism that has been used to elucidate biological processes, such as chemotaxis. This phenotypic richness in its biology is what makes it such a wonderful model that it is of particular value as biomedical research tools. We present in this poster, data on dynamics of the aerotaxis process in wild type and mutant Dictyostelium cells.