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S A Kauffman

Publications and source records attributed to S A Kauffman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Changes in protein synthetic activity in early Drosophila embryos mutant for the segmentation gene Krüppel.

We have identified early embryo proteins related to the segmentation gene Krüppel by [35S]methionine pulse labelling and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Protein synthesis differences shared by homozygous embryos of two Krüppel alleles when compared to heterozygous and wild-type embryos are reported. The study was extended to syncytial blastoderm stages by pulse labelling and gel analysis of single embryos, using Krüppel-specific proteins from gastrula stages as molecular markers for identifying homozygous Krüppel embryos. Localized expression of interesting proteins was examined in embryo fragments. The earliest differences detected at nuclear migration stages showed unregulated synthesis in mutant embryos of two proteins that have stage specific synthesis in normal embryos. At the cellular blastoderm stage one protein was not synthesized and two proteins showed apparent shifts in isoelectric point in mutant embryos. Differences observed in older embryos included additional proteins with shifted isoelectric points and a number of qualitative and quantitative changes in protein synthesis. Five of the proteins with altered rates of synthesis in mutant embryos showed localized synthesis in normal embryos. The early effects observed are consistent with the hypothesis that the Krüppel product can be a negative or positive regulator of expression of other loci, while blastoderm and gastrula stage shifts in isoelectric point indicate that a secondary effect of Krüppel function may involve post-translational modification of proteins.

Alleles↗
PubMed1986

Autocatalytic sets of proteins.

This article investigates the possibility that the emergence of reflexively autocatalytic sets of peptides and polypeptides may be an essentially inevitable collective property of any sufficiently complex set of polypeptides. The central idea is based on the connectivity properties of random directed graphs. In the set of amino acid monomer and polymer species up to some maximum length, M, the number of possible polypeptides is large, but, for specifiable "legitimate" end condensation, cleavage and transpeptidation exchange reactions, the number of potential reactions by which the possible polypeptides can interconvert is very much larger. A directed graph in which arrows from smaller fragments to larger condensation products depict potential synthesis reactions, while arrows from the larger peptide to the smaller fragments depict the reverse cleavage reactions, comprises the reaction graph for such a system. Polypeptide protoenzymes are able to catalyze such reactions. The distribution of catalytic capacities in peptide space is a fundamental problem in its own right, and in its bearing on the existence of autocatalytic sets of proteins. Using an initial idealized hypothesis that an arbitrary polypeptide has a fixed a priori probability of catalyzing any arbitrary legitimate reaction to assign to each polypeptide those reactions, if any, which it catalyzes, the probability that the set of polypeptides up to length M contains a reflexively autocatalytic subset can be calculated and is a percolation problem on such reaction graphs. Because, as M increases, the ratio of reactions among the possible polypeptides to polypeptides rises rapidly, the existence of such autocatalytic subsets is assured for any fixed probability of catalysis. The main conclusions of this analysis appear independent of the idealizations of the initial model, introduce a novel kind of parallel selection for peptides catalyzing connected sequences of reactions, depend upon a new kind of minimal critical complexity whose properties are definable, and suggest that the emergence of self replicating systems may be a self organizing collective property of critically complex protein systems in prebiotic evolution. Similar principles may apply to the emergence of a primitive connected metabolism. Recombinant DNA procedures, cloning random DNA coding sequences into expression vectors, afford a direct avenue to test the distribution of catalytic capacities in peptide space, may provide a new means to select or screen for peptides with useful properties, and may ultimately lead toward the actual construction of autocatalytic peptide sets.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1986

Variegated expression of the Sgs-4 locus in Drosophila melanogaster.

Experiments on T(1;4)wm258-21 larvae of Drosophila melanogaster are described which establish the existence of a salivary gland specific marker for position-effect variegation. The marker is a glue protein gene called Sgs-4 which is expressed during the third larval instar. Using temperature as a variegation modifier, we showed that cytological compaction for the Sgs-4 chromosomal locus is enhanced at 17 degrees C and reduced at 29 degrees C. We also found that the Sgs-4 protein and transcript from salivary glands at 17 degrees C accumulate to roughly half the levels found in salivary glands at 29 degrees C. Southern analysis suggested that the Sgs-4 locus at 17 degrees C is polytenized to roughly one-third the level at 29 degrees C. The results are discussed with respect to alternative models of variegation.

DNA↗
PubMed1982

Mitotic delay following inhibition by 5'-fluorodeoxyuridine of S-phase in Physarum is not due to delay in termination of S-phase.

It has been known for several years that inhibition by 5'-fluorodeoxyuridine (FdUrd) of DNA synthesis in plasmodia of Physarum polycephalum delays subsequent nuclear mitosis. To test whether this delay is due to delay in the termination of S-phase, we blocked DNA synthesis with FdUrd + uridine for 3 h at different stages of S-phase, and in plasmodia with different cycle times. The results show that in short-cycling plasmodia the delay in mitosis can be as long as 9 h, despite little delay in termination of S-phase, and is longest when plasmodia are blocked in early S-phase. In plasmodia with long cycle times, no mitotic delay following 3 h inhibition by FdUrd of S-phase is observed. Our results suggest that mitotic delay after pulses of FdUrd is not due to delay in termination of S-phase, which therefore does not appear to 'gate' entry into a G2 period of fixed length. The fact that delay is longest after FdUrd blocks in early S-phase suggests that normal progress through S-phase, not its termination, is critical for the timing of the subsequent mitosis. This may reflect an obligate coupling between replication and transcription of specific genes needed for progress toward mitosis. The lack of mitotic delay in long-cycling plasmodia shows that S-phase-coupled processes need not act as 'timers' if other processes become rate-limiting.

Cell Cycle↗
PubMed1981

Pattern formation in the Drosophila embryo.

Three plausible hypotheses about developmental commitments in the Drosophila embryo propose that: (1) a micromosaic of localized determinants in the egg trigger somatic commitments; (2) monotonic anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral gradients in the egg specify positions by a series of threshold values; (3) sequential subdivision of the early embryo into 'anterior' or 'posterior' 'middle' or 'end', 'dorsal' or 'ventral', 'odd' or 'even' compartmental domains encodes the somatic commitment in each region in a combinatorial epigenetic code. Evidence in favour of such a combinatorial code includes its capacity to account for major features of transdetermination and for many single and coordinated homoeotic transformations. In particular, both these metaplasias often cause transformations between ectodermal tissues such as antenna and genitalia, whose anlagen lie far apart on the blastoderm fate map. This phenomenon is not naturally explained by monotonic gradient models. In contrast, not only transformation between distant regions of the fate map, but also the observed geometries of compartmental boundaries on the wing, and probable ones in the early embryo, are naturally explained by reaction-diffusion models. These systems form a discrete succession of differently shaped monotonic and nonmonotonic eigenfunction gradient patterns of the same morphogens, as the tissue containing the chemical system changes in size and shape, or in other parameters. The successive mirror symmetries in non-monotonic gradients predict that distant regions of the embryo make similar developmental commitments, and also predict specific classes of pattern mutants forming mirror symmetric structures along the embryo on a variety of length scales. Finally, reaction diffusion systems spontaneously generate transverse gradients of the underlying chemicals when more than one eigenfunction is amplified at once, and therefore specify two-dimensional positional information within domains. Although it is attractive, no feature of the combinatorial code hypothesis is verified. Current data relating to whether the sequential formation of compartmental boundaries actually reflects the commitment of the two isolated 'polyclones' to alternative fates, whether any genes act continuously to maintain disc commitments, and whether homoeotic mutants actually 'switch' disc determined states, are assessed.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Inhibition of two homeotic mutants of Drosophila by 5-bromodeoxyuridine and fluorouracil.

Nasobemia (Ns) and spineless-aristapedia (ssa40a) are dominant and recessive homeotic mutants of Drosophila which convert parts of the antenna to leg structures. Exposure of Ns and ssa40a larvae to half-lethal concentrations of 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) and flourouracil (FU) together or separately during the presumptive time of gene action suppresses the expressivity and penetrance of the mutants.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Control of sequential compartment formation in Drosophila.

During development of Drosophila melanogaster, sequential commitment to alternative development programs occurs in neighboring groups of cells. These commitments appear to be reflected by lines of clonal restriction, called compartmental boundaries, which progressively subdivide the early embryo, and later the imaginal discs, which give rise to different adult appendages. We propose that a reaction-diffusion system acts throughout development and generates a sequence of differently shaped chemical patterns. These patterns account for the sequence and geometries of compartmental boundaries, and predict that each terminal compartment is specifiied by a unique combination of binary choices made during its formation. This binary "code" interprets coherently the patterned metaplasia seen in transdetermination and homeotic mutations.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Premature replication of late S period DNA regions in early S nuclei transferred to late S cytoplasm by fusion in Physarum polycephalum.

Fusion of a late S period plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum to an early S period plasmodium causes premature replication of late S replicating regions in the nuclei of the early S plasmodium. The extent of ahead-of-schedule replication of late S replicating regions in early S period nuclei increases to a plateau of 16-20% for fusions with 40-70 min of phase difference, then declines for larger phase differences. The stimulatory factors for late S replicative units are present only in late S plasmodia and appear to act only on late S regions. Once replicated, early S replicating regions are not stimulated to replicate again by fusion to a plasmodium entering the S period. Our data do not discriminate between anti-termination of replication by factors of stop sites on long replicons, and a sequential initiation of replication on new, possibly non-adjacent regions, but does provide evidence that the stimulatory factors are distinct from one another and specific for certain target replicative units.

Cell Division↗