Acrasin
Each species of slime mold has its own specific chemical messenger, which are collectively referred to as acrasins.[1] These chemicals signal that many individual cells aggregate to form a single large cell or plasmodium.[1] One of the earliest acrasins to be identified was cyclic AMP, found in the species Dictyostelium discoideum by Brian Shaffer,[2] which exhibits a complex swirling-pulsating spiral pattern when forming a pseudoplasmodium.[3]
The term acrasin was descriptively named after Acrasia from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene,[4] who seduced men against their will and then transformed them into beasts. Acrasia is itself a play on the Greek akrasia that describes loss of free will.
Extraction
Brian Shaffer was the first to purify acrasin, now known to be cyclic AMP, in 1954, using methanol.[2] Glorin, the acrasin of P. violaceum, can be purified by inhibiting the acrasin-degrading enzyme acrasinase with alcohol, extracting with alcohol and separating with column chromatography.[3][4]
Notes
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- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Evidence for the formation of cell aggregates by chemotaxis in the development of the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum - J.T.Bonner and L.J.Savage Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 106, pp. 1, October (1947) Cell Biology
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Aggregation in cellular slime moulds: in vitro isolation of acrasin - B.M.Shaffer Nature Vol. 79, pp. 975, (1953) Cell Biology
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Identification of a pterin as the acrasin of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium lacteum - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences United States Vol. 79, pp. 6270–6274, October (1982) Cell Biology
- <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ Hunting Slime Moulds - Adele Conover, Smithsonian Magazine Online (2001)
References
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