Analysis of autophagic and necrotic cell death in Dictyostelium.

Abstract Non‐apoptotic cell death types can be conveniently studied in Dictyostelium discoideum, an exceptionally favorable model not only because of its well‐known genetic and experimental advantages, but also because in Dictyostelium there is no apoptosis machinery that could interfere with non‐apoptotic cell death. We show here how to conveniently demonstrate, assess, and study these non‐apoptotic cell death types. These can be generated by use of modifications of the monolayer technique of Rob Kay et al ., and either wild‐type HMX44A Dictyostelium cells, leading to autophagic cell death, or the corresponding atg1 − autophagy gene mutant cells, leading to necrotic cell death. Methods to follow these non‐apoptotic cell death types qualitatively and quantitatively will be reported.