CSM News
Electronic Edition
Volume 1, number 13
August 21, 1993

Please submit abstracts of your papers as soon as they have been
accepted for publication by sending them to CSM-News@worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu.

Back issues of CSM-News, the CSM Reference database and other useful
information is available by anonymous ftp from worms.cmsbio.nwu.edu
[129.105.233.50].


===================
Abstracts Received
===================

The target of ammonia action in Dictyostelium

Lynne Davies (1), Michel Satre (2), Jean-Baptiste Martin (3) and Julian D.
Gross (1)

(1) Department of Biochemistry, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PN, UK
(2) Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire and (3) Laboratoire de Resonance
Magnetique en Biologie et Medecine, Departement de Biologie Moleculaire et
Structurale, Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires, 38041 Grenoble cedex, France
 
Cell, in press

ABSTRACT

The weak base ammonia is implicated in a number of key processes in
Dictyostelium development, notably aggregation and culmination.  To determine
its intracellular site of action we compared its biological potency with
that of other weak bases.  All the bases inhibited these developmental
processes effectively, but differed many fold in potency in accordance with
their activity in dissipating pH gradients, as measured by in vivo 31P-NMR
with pH-sensitive phosphonate probes.  These results indicate that weak
bases influence development by raising the pH of an intracellular acidic
compartment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[End CSM-News.v1.#13]]