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Biomedical subjects

P L Derstine

Publications and source records attributed to P L Derstine.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Cyclic 3',5' AMP relay in Dictyostelium discoideum. I. A technique to monitor responses to controlled stimuli.

A perfusion technique was developed to deliver [14C]adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) stimuli of well-defined magnitude and duration to tritium-labeled Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae and simultaneously monitor the elicited secretion of [3H]cAMP (i.e., the relay response). The tritiated compounds secreted in response to [14C]cAMP stimuli were highly enriched in [3H]cAMP and reflected an increase in intracellular cAMP accompanying stimulation rather than the release of a preexisting store or bulk cellular contents. The secretory response (per 10(6) cells) to 2-min stimuli increased during differentiation from about 0.2 pmol at 0.5 h to approximately 5 pmol of cAMP at 7 h. Without adequate perfusion, amoebae altered the level of cAMP in their environment in two ways: phosphodiesterases destroyed cAMP stimuli under some conditions so as to attenuate the relay response; under other circumstances, secreted cAMP magnified minimal exogenous stimuli into maximal responses. Amoebae, furthermore, would respond to their basal secretion of cAMP autocatalytically if its removal or destruction were interrupted. The perfusion system minimized these cell-induced modifications, allowing control of the level of the stimulus and response in quantitative studies.

Cyclic AMP↗

Deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in a temperature-sensitive Escherichia coli dnaH mutant, strain HF4704S.

The dnaH mutant strain HF4704S, isolated by Sakai et al. (1974), was examined for its effect on phiX174 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis. It was found to carry two mutations affecting DNA synthesis. One mutation had no affect on phiX174 DNA synthesis, but did affect the ability of the mutant cells to form colonies on agar medium at 41 degrees C, and caused host DNA synthesis to cease after 1 h at 41 degrees C. The mutant marker cotransduced with ilvD at a frequency of about 9%. It seems likely that this mutation is in the dnaA gene. The second mutation affected the ability of the mutant cells to form colonies on agar medium supplemented with only 2 mug of thymine per ml, and affected both host and phiX174 DNA synthesis in medium supplemented with only 2 mug of thymine per ml. Both effects could be overcone by adding excess exogenous thymine. We were not able to unambiguously determine the map position of this mutant locus. Our data show that the DNA synthesis phenotype of the mutant strain HE4704S is governed by both these mutations, neither of which directly affects the replication of phiX174 DNA.

Chromosome Mapping↗

Bacteriophage G4 DNA synthesis in temperature-sensitive dna mutants of Escherichia coli.

The synthesis of bacteriophage G4 DNA was examined in temperature-sensitive dna mutants under permissive and nonpermissive conditions. The infecting single-stranded G4 DNA was converted to the parental replicative form (RF) at the nonpermissive temperature in infected cells containing a temperature sensitive mutation in the dnaA, dnaB, dnaC, dnaE, or dnaG gene. The presence of 30 mug of chloramphenicol or 200 mug of rifampin per ml had no effect on parental RF synthesis in these mutants. Replication of G4 double-stranded RF DNA occurred at a normal rate in dnaAts cells at the nonpermissive temperature, but the rate was greatly reduced in cells containing a temperature-sensitive mutation in the dnaB, dnaC, dnaE, or dnaG gene. RF DNA replicated at normal rates in revertants of these dna temperature-sensitive host cells. The simplest interpretation of these observations is that none of the dna gene products tested is essential for the synthesis of the complementary DNA strand on the infecting single-stranded G4 DNA, whereas the dnaB, dnaC, dnaE, (DNA polymerase III), and dnaG gene products are all essential for replication of the double-stranded G4 RF DNA. The alternate possibility that one or more of the gene products are actually essential for G4 parental RF synthesis, even though this synthesis is not defective in the mutant hosts, is also discussed.

Chloramphenicol↗