In this chapter, we describe how to conveniently demonstrate, assess, and study cell death inDictyosteliumthrough simple cell culture, clonogenic tests, and photonic (with the help of staining techniques) and electronic microscopy. Cell death can be conveniently generated using minor modifications of the monolayer technique of Rob Kay et al., and either wild-type HMX44ADictyosteliumcells or the correspondingatg1− autophagy gene mutant cells. Methods to follow cell death qualitatively and quantitatively facilitate detailed studies of vacuolar death in wild-type cells and of nonvacuolar, “condensed” death inatg1− mutant cells.
