Cytoplasmic acidification facilitates but does not mediate DIF-induced prestalk gene expression in Dictyostelium discoideum.

Stalk cell differentiation in Dictyostelium can be induced by the differentiation-inducing factor, DIF, or by conditions that decrease intracellular pH (pHi). We have investigated whether cytoplasmic acidification acts directly to induce expression of pDd56 and pDd63, two DIF-regulated genes, specifically expressed in prestalk cells. The weak base methylamine, which increases pHi, inhibits DIF-induced transcription. The weak acid 5,5-dimethyl-2,4-oxazolidinedione (DMO), which decreases pHi, stimulates DIF-induction of the two prestalk genes. After relatively long incubation periods, DMO also induces a low level of prestalk gene expression in the absence of added DIF. However, unlike DIF-mediated induction, the apparent DMO-mediated induction decreases to undetectable levels when the cell density is reduced from 10(7) to 10(5) cells/ml. This indicates that DMO does not itself induce gene expression, but acts to enhance the effects of an autonomously secreted stalk-inducing factor, presumably DIF. These results suggest that the effects of DIF on gene expression are regulated by intracellular pH, but do not support a role for protons as direct intermediates in the DIF signal transduction pathway.