Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Spoerl, Edward
• Sarachek, Alvin
• Smith, Stuart B.

Titel

The Effect of Amino Acids Upon Cell Devision in Ustilago

Ist Teil von

• American journal of botany, 1957-03, Vol.44 (3), p.252-258

Ort / Verlag

American Botanical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

1957

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Ustilago sphaerogena was grown in liquid culture using various amino acids and ribonucleic acid as nitrogen sources. Arginine, asparagine, and proline produced good growth and short rod-shaped cells. RNA and glycine also produced good growth, but the cells were long, tangled and mycelial in form. On ammonium acetate short rod-shaped cells were produced. Ammonium ion, arginine, asparagine or proline added to glycine as the primary nitrogen source overcame the typical glycine long-tangled-cell form. Methionine and norleucine, also, were especially effective in reversing the long cell form. Glutamic and aspartic acids produced cultures of mixed and intermediate cell form which could be converted readily to short cells or long cells by adding an additional appropriate amino acid, and serine and threonine were acids which produced long-tangled cells. Other amino acids used produced intermediate cell cultures or were poor sources of nitrogen. The observed cell form was consistent throughout the growth curve. In a few acids only, low pH favored cell clumping as contrasted to a single cell condition at higher pH. Of a number of short chain organic acids used to evaluate possible effects of amino acid residues, caproic acid overcame the typical long-tangled glycine cell form. The ammonium ion or amino group was closely involved in the cell division processes affected, since the ion, or amino acids which apparently supplied the amino group readily, produced short cells and overcame the effect of acids which normally produced long-cells. However, amino acids such as methionine and norleucine apparently acted in some specific fashion to promote division processes, while glycine and serine somehow interfered with or were unable to enter effectively or rapidly into reactions necessary for division.