The role of phenylalanine in differentiating amphibian melanocytes
| Autor: | Pat G. Model, John D. Palmer, Denis Moran |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1973 |
| Předmět: |
Phenylalanine
Biology Tritium Ambystoma Nervous System Pigment cell differentiation chemistry.chemical_compound Leucine Animals Tyrosine Molecular Biology Melanins chemistry.chemical_classification Neural crest Cell Differentiation Cell Biology Dihydroxyphenylalanine Amino acid Neuroepithelial cell Biochemistry chemistry Puromycin Protein Biosynthesis Lactates Autoradiography Melanocytes Ganglia sense organs Developmental Biology |
| Zdroj: | Developmental Biology. 32:15-27 |
| ISSN: | 0012-1606 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/0012-1606(73)90216-9 |
| Popis: | To see whether phenylalanine serves as a substrate in melanogenesis, hanging drop explants of neural crest from amphibian (Ambystoma maculatum and A. mexicanum) embryos were subjected on the seventh day in vitro to treatment with phenylalanine-3H and studied by means of light microscopic radioautography. All melanin-containing cells showed label. On the other hand, when puromycin, an inhibitor of protein synthesis, together with the labeled amino acid was administered to the cultures, no radioactivity was incorporated by pigmented cells. Comparable results were obtained when leucine was substituted for phenylalanine. In control experiments, puromycin and labeled tyrosine or 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), both known precursors for melanin synthesis, were administered to the neural crest cultures. In these experiments, puromycin had no effect on the incorporation of label by pigmented cells. Our data strongly indicate that in differentiating amphibian melanocytes with functional pigment-forming systems, phenylalanine is used in protein synthesis, but does not serve as a substrate for the tyrosine-tyrosinase system. In another series of experiments, explants of neuroepithelium (neural crest anlage) were grown from the time of explantation to the seventh day in vitro in the presence of phenyllactic acid, an analog of phenylalanine. Pigment cells developed normally. These results suggest that phenylalanine plays little or no role in pigment cell differentiation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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