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Acrasin

Each species of slime mold has its own specific chemical messenger, which are collectively referred to as acrasins.{{ref|bonner}} These chemicals signal that many individual cells aggregate to form a single large cell or plasmodium.{{Cite book|title=A dictionary of genetics|last=King, Robert C.|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Mulligan, Pamela Khipple, 1953-, Stansfield, William D., 1930-|isbn=978-0-19-937686-5|edition=8th|location=New York|oclc=871046520}} One of the earliest acrasins to be identified was cyclic AMP, found in the species Dictyostelium discoideum by Brian Shaffer,{{ref|shaffer}} which exhibits a complex swirling-pulsating spiral pattern when forming a pseudoplasmodium.{{ref|naos}}

The term acrasin was descriptively named after Acrasia from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene,{{ref|smithson}} 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.{{Cite journal|last=Shaffer|first=B. M. |date=1956-06-29 |title=Properties of acrasin |journal=Science |volume=123|issue=3209|pages=1172–1173 |doi=10.1126/science.123.3209.1172|issn=0036-8075|pmid=13337336|bibcode=1956Sci...123.1172S}} 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.{{Cite journal |last1=Heftmann|first1=Erich|last2=Wright|first2=Barbara E.|last3=Liddel |first3=Gerald U. |title=Identification of a Sterol with Acrasin Activity in a Slime Mold|date=December 1959 |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01533a054 |journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society |volume=81|issue=24 |pages=6525–6526 |doi=10.1021/ja01533a054|issn=0002-7863|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal |last1=Shimomura |first1=O. |last2=Suthers |first2=H. L. |last3=Bonner |first3=J. T.|date=1982-12-01 |title=Chemical identity of the acrasin of the cellular slime mold Polysphondylium violaceum |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=79|issue=23|pages=7376–7379 |doi=10.1073/pnas.79.23.7376 |issn=0027-8424 |pmid=6961416 |pmc=347342 |bibcode=1982PNAS...79.7376S |doi-access=free}}

Notes

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  1. {{note|bonner}} [https://archive.today/20130105150357/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110495786/abstract 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
  2. {{note|shaffer}} [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v171/n4361/abs/171975a0.html Aggregation in cellular slime moulds: in vitro isolation of acrasin] - B.M.Shaffer Nature Vol. 79, pp. 975, (1953) Cell Biology
  3. {{note|naos}} [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=347102&blobtype=pdf 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
  4. {{note|smithson}} [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090927103805/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/phenom_mar01.html Hunting Slime Moulds] - Adele Conover, Smithsonian Magazine Online (2001)

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References

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Category:Cell biology